Alnylam defends heart disease drugs after failure of AstraZeneca’s Wainua Biotech argues that it medicines maintain their value, and that a key trial has a better design

https://www.statnews.com/2026/08/30/alnylam-attr-astrazeneca-wainua-attruby-heart-disease/ By Andrew JosephAug. 30, 2026 Europe Correspondent Can a pregnancy hormone steer a cardiovascular treatment? The pregnancy hormone relaxin has long been studied as a potential avenue for a cardiovascular treatment because it can cause blood vessels to widen and relax. One snag has been that high doses of relaxin-related drugs have come with safety issues. AstraZeneca thinks it may have an advantage with its oral relaxin agonist AZD5462. The drug provides a lower dose than older injectable and intravenous formulations, and has now shown hints that it could be an effective medicine, according to midstage trial results presented over the weekend at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual conference. The Phase 2 LUMINARA study tested different doses of AZD5462 in patients with different kinds of heart failure, one known as HFrEF and another as HFpEF, which are distinguished based on how well the heart can still pump blood. The aim of the study was to help investigators figure out what a potential Phase 3 study, which would test clinical outcomes, should look like. Overall, based on a measure of cardiac function, investigators found the drug showed promise, particularly in patients with HFrEF. One nagging issue: A lower dose led to more dramatic effects. “We see positive signals, particularly in rEF patients, on some of the cardiac function metrics that clue us into, would it be effective as a heart failure therapy?” AstraZeneca’s Mina Makar told STAT. “And so we think it has the right combination of efficacy and safety, and now we need to make some decisions as to if we progress it and how we progress it.” For now, AstraZeneca hasn’t detailed any Phase 3 development plans.