Alnylam defends its drugs after a rival's trial flopped

When a competitor's drug fails, someone else gets to make their case. AstraZeneca and its partner Ionis reported a trial miss in July. Their heart-disease drug, Wainua, missed the main goal of the trial. Now Alnylam is stepping in. Its rival drug Amvuttra treats the same disease. Alnylam is publicly defending its own medicines, according to STAT News reporting from Aug. 30.

The disease at stake is ATTR-CM. A misfolded protein builds up in the heart. Over time, it causes heart failure. Wainua and Amvuttra fight it differently, but both try to stop the liver from making the harmful protein. Their trial results have now diverged sharply. Wainua stumbled. Amvuttra hasn't. AstraZeneca's shares dropped about 9% the day its failure came out, their worst single day in over a year.

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Does one rival's failure actually make Amvuttra the safer bet, or just the surviving one? Trial results in this disease have swung before. For now, Alnylam has the stronger recent data and a drug already approved. Whether that holds up as more results come in, or AstraZeneca finds another path forward for Wainua, is still open.