(NYT) – Doctors were hopeful the drug, which was being tested in a large clinical trial by Novartis, was going to be a powerful new tool to fight heart disease.

Novartis announced on Friday that its experimental drug, pelacarsen, widely assumed to be the vanguard of a new era in preventing heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths, had failed.

The announcement gave no further details, but it came as a shock to the field of cardiology. (Read More)