Pharma major Novartis falls nearly 10%, heading for worst day on record after three drug trial setbacks

BREAKING: Novartis shares fall nearly 10%, heading for their worst day on record, after a third drug trial setback in a week as its del-desiran trial for muscle-wasting disorder failed.

Novartis is having the worst trading day in its history. Shares fell nearly 10 percent on Tuesday after a third drug trial failure in a single week.

The latest blow is del-desiran, a treatment for myotonic dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disorder. The late-stage study couldn't show it worked better than a placebo. And this drug wasn't cheap, it came with the 12 billion dollar acquisition of Avidity Biosciences last year. That's a lot of money riding on a molecule that just missed.

And it's the pattern that has investors rattled. Days earlier, pelacarsen failed to cut cardiovascular risk in its own late-stage trial. A week before that, Novartis paused eight trials of its cell therapy rap-cel after three patients died.

The company says setbacks are part of scientific progress. Fair enough. But three in a week is not a setback, it's a pipeline problem, and the market just repriced it accordingly.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.