AstraZeneca drops Ionis-partnered heart drug after Phase 2 success isn’t good enough

An Ionis Pharmaceuticals heart disease drug beat a placebo in a mid-stage clinical trial, but partner AstraZeneca has decided it won’t advance the genetic medicine to a larger Phase 3 test. The results were apparently not enough to set the Ionis therapy apart from commercialized cholesterol-lowering drugs that address the same protein target.