A microRNA-targeting therapy acquired by Novo Nordisk when it bought Cardior in a $1 billion-plus deal has generated disappointing results in a phase 2 heart failure trial.
The study, reported at the Heart Failure 2026 congress in Barcelona, Spain, found no benefit with CDR132L (NN6706) compared to placebo in the HF-REVERT trial, which enrolled 280 patients who had a recent heart attack and were in heart failure, defined by a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 45% or lower and elevated levels of the NT-proBNP biomarker.
The primary endpoint – left ventricular end-systolic volume index (LVSVI), which is a measure of heart remodelling – was improved with CDR132L but was unable to show a statistically significant improvement over placebo, according to the investigators.
At a dose of 5 mg/kg, CDR132L achieved a change in LVSVI of 8.364% at six months, rising to 9.824% for a 10mg/kg dose, which was not significantly better than the 7.611% reduction seen in the control group.
CDR132L is an oligonucleotide-based inhibitor directed against a non-coding RNA called microRNA-132 (also known as miR-132), which is implicated in adverse heart remodelling. The drug is designed to act on several disease pathways simultaneously, including diminished contractility and overgrowth of heart muscle, fibrosis (scarring), and the formation of new blood vessels in the heart.
Novo Nordisk bought Germany-based developer Cardior in 2014, investing some of the cash generated by rocketing sales of its GLP-1 agonist-based therapies for diabetes and obesity.
"Despite progress made in the treatment of heart failure, a major unmet need exists for treatments that directly target pathophysiological processes," said HF-REVERT investigator Prof Johann Bauersachs of Hannover Medical School, Germany, at the conference.
"HF-REVERT represents the first randomised evaluation of microRNA inhibition to treat heart failure," he added. "There were no safety concerns, but also no significant difference in the primary endpoint between CDR132L and placebo. Investigations continue to assess whether certain patients with chronic heart failure, i.e., those with left ventricular hypertrophy [LVH], may benefit from treatment with CDR132L."
Novo Nordisk is running other phase 2 trials of the drug, including the 8212-Preserved study in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and LVH and the 8282-Reduced study in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and LVH, which are both expected to generate results next year.
A young liberal woman refused to cooperate with prosecutors after violent recidivist Rhamell Burke attacked her on the subway five weeks before he allegedly pushed a retired NYC teacher to his death on Thursday.
Now the 23-year-old woman has regrets.
“Maybe a part of me was just like, I don’t want to put another black man in jail,” she told The Post.
Rhamell Burke (center) is led out of the 13th Precinct in Manhattan after his arrest Friday, May 8, 2026.Robert Mecea for New York Post
Maybe if she had indulged in less self-congratulatory empathy for the maniac who allegedly tried to kill her and felt more compassion for her fellow New Yorkers left to the mercy of an out-of-control predator roaming the streets, Ross Falzone would still be alive.
But Falzone, 76, was unlucky enough to be entering the Chelsea subway station Thursday afternoon when Burke allegedly randomly shoved him down a flight of stairs, leaving the beloved ex-teacher to die hours later at Bellevue Hospital from a catastrophic brain injury.
The woman’s irrational attitude to public safety is a textbook example of suicidal empathy, the condition described by evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad in which compassion becomes so excessive that people or societies make decisions that undermine their own survival.
‘Woke mind virus’
It’s as good an explanation as any to describe the years-long harassment campaign by sizable chunks of the public against law enforcement in New York and around the country, even as chaos and disorder grow, the predators get bolder, and the body count grows.
The irony is that women, just like Burke’s lucky victim, are overrepresented in the ranks of angry anti-NYPD, anti-ICE agitators. They are among the most vulnerable targets of violent predators, yet they insist on protecting them at the expense of their victims.
ICE agents, many of whom are Hispanic, prioritize arrests of murderers and child rapists, whether in Minneapolis or New York, but their biggest opponents are feral, shrieking women who have been brainwashed into misdirecting their natural nurturing instincts toward the perpetrator.
These women are “so concerned about how they’ll be perceived by the public, to the point where they refuse to do the right thing,” says psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert, author of “Therapy Nation,” a timely book about modern culture’s psychological unraveling to be published next week.
“It’s another manifestation of the so-called ‘woke mind virus. Ideological conditioning and horrifically terrible judgment that distorts all logic …
“They feel like it’s their duty to take a stand and not be responsible for stopping illegal migrants coming into the country or sending a black man to prison …
“[But] the guilt this young woman [who refused to testify against Burke] is feeling now far outweighs any perception of racism she might have felt.”
It’s women and children who are most at risk in a city plagued by the soft-on-crime policies implemented since 2020 by successive leftist governors and mayors.
Yet 84% ofwomen age 18 to 29 voted forcop-hater Zohran Mamdani as mayor on the promise of replacing NYPD officers with social workers to deal with mental health emergencies, homelessness and even domestic violence.
The judge who released Burke despite a recent string of four arrests for bizarre and violent behavior is also a woman.
Judge Marva Brown, a former Legal Aid Society public defender, is known for her lenient treatment of violent felons. In an undated video of a speech doing the rounds on social media, she explains her thinking: “The personal effect of having an incarcerated family member is very strong with me and the work that I do each and every day.”
‘Resort to violence’
A few hours before he allegedly murdered Falzone, cops took Burke to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after arresting him yet again for crazy, menacing behavior. The hospital reportedly let him out on the street after about an hour and later defended its fateful decision as “appropriate.”
Was it appropriate for Falzone, or for the city’s decision-makers, who turn a blind eye to public safety in the name of compassion for the criminal?
Rampant homelessness, open-air drug dens, defunded police and emasculated justice systems are hallmarks of Democratic cities and all justified in the name of compassion.
The biggest defenders of this breakdown of moral order are pampered white liberal women, who are so conspicuous that they have earned the acronym “AWFL,” for affluent white female liberal.
President Trump triggers these women into paroxysms of performative rage, escalating from the pussy-hat protests of his first term to the anti-ICE protests and mystifying No Kings rallies across the country. Almost 90% of No Kings participants were white, almost 60% were women, the median age 44, and almost one quarter agreed with the statement that “Americans may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to researchers at American University who surveyed the group in Washington, DC, last year.
Sometimes, if they are literally mugged by reality, they change their tune, like “The Young Turks” podcast co-host Ana Kasparian. She said she quit the Democratic Party after being berated by fellow liberals as a heartless racist for saying she was afraid to leave her house after being sexually assaulted by a homeless man while walking her dog in Los Angeles.
But we shouldn’t have to wait for women to become victims of crime before they wake up.
The weaponization of compassion has also led to disproportionately female support for political assassination, according to a January survey from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University. Support for political murder is about 15% higher among females than among males.
‘The shift matters’
The survey came out just four months after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, allegedly by a young man driven by transgender ideology, and months after two separate assassination attempts against Trump, and a year after health care CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in the back in Midtown Manhattan, allegedly by another cold-blooded political assassin, Luigi Mangione.
Justification for the murder of Trump jumped to 67% from 56% last April among left-of-center respondents surveyed by Rutgers, while 54% of right-of-center respondents expressed justification for murdering Mamdani, showing the Luigi culture has jumped the ideological divide.
But it was the women who most surprised the Rutgers researchers, who wrote that the “unexpected rise in tolerance for assassination rhetoric among women under conditions of high social media exposure [indicates that] something fundamental in the moral environment has shifted.
“This shift matters because women have historically played a stabilizing role in civic and social life. Across cultures, they are more strongly associated with norms of care, harm avoidance, and social cohesion. When even groups long linked to moral restraint begin to show elevated tolerance for political violence, it suggests that the erosion is not ideological but structural.”
Yes, it’s terrifying.
Women’s nurturing instincts have been turned into weapons of political warfare, especially on the left.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is welcoming Big Apple companies relocating or expanding in the Lone Star State after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani demonized billionaire hedge fund honcho Ken Griffin for being rich.
“Governor Abbott is proud to welcome businesses and job creators from across the country to Texas, where we have no state income tax, reasonable regulations, and a pro-growth environment that encourages free enterprise to flourish,” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told The Post.
“Punitive policies that target successful job-creating entrepreneurs only accelerate the trend of companies choosing Texas,” Gov. Greg Abbott’s spokesman said.Christopher Sadowski
“Punitive policies that target successful job-creating entrepreneurs only accelerate the trend of companies choosing Texas,” Mahaleris said.
Texas has already surpassed the Empire State when it comes to financial sector employment, with a total of 519,000 employees compared with New York’s 507,000, according to data from the nonprofit Partnership for New York City.
JPMorgan Chase now has more employees in Texas than in New York — and the Big Apple is at risk of losing its crown as the center of the global financial industry.
While welcoming New York CEOs and jobs, Abbott busedmore than 100,000 migrants to the Big Apple and other sanctuary citiesin the lefty state during the worst of the country’s border crisis. He complained that Texas border towns were overwhelmed and that sanctuary cities run by Democrats were failing to help address the problem.
The loss of Wall Street business could deal a major blow to New York City’s finances, which are buoyed by taxes on bonuses from the sector.
Democratic socialist Mamdani triggered a backlash from Wall Street and business advocates when he used Griffin’s swanky $238 million Midtown penthouse as a backdrop in one of his trademark slick social-media videos to promote a new pied-a-terre tax — a stunt that the hedge fund titan called “creepy.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani triggered backlash from Wall Street and business advocates when he used Ken Griffin’s swanky $238 million Midtown penthouse as a backdrop in one of his trademark slick social-media videos.Mayor Mamdani/X
In a one-two punch, Griffin as well as Apollo Global Management honcho Marc Rowan threatened to expand outside New York City — while a silent wave of businesses have been “quiet quitting” the city over its hostile environment, insiders told The Post last week.
A White House adviser said Mamdani’s anti-corporate, anti-rich CEO rhetoric is a gift that could help Republicans retain the White House in 2028 after President Trump leaves office.
“Don’t interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake,” the White House insider told The Post.
“People in New York are looking at real estate in Dallas and Miami,” said the GOP source with ties to New York.
Democratic ex-Gov. David Paterson, meanwhile, ripped Mamdani for demonizing wealthy job creators and said he wants to help the business community fight back and not cower to Mamdani by skedaddling.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrives for the Boom Belt: A Return to First Principles in Public Markets conference on April 7, 2026, in Miami, Florida.Getty Images
“[Mamdani] comes from a household of poor judgment,” Paterson told The Post on Sunday.
“I made a list of people I know — 13 of them were Democrats and six were Republicans — who would sit down and just have a conversation about where this city is going and not to let it get destroyed by the leadership and also not to let it falter, because the resources that have kept the city alive are thinking about moving to other places,” Paterson added to WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
Paterson said New York is a rough place and that business and civic leaders must toughen up and form a united front to defend the tax generators and job producers.
“This is a great city,” Paterson told host John Catsimatidis. “We’ve been through some really difficult times in this city. I think this is the time when leadership stands up and shows how well they can lead.
Ken Griffin is among many prominent business titans threatening to expand outside New York City.REUTERS
“I certainly understand how Ken Griffin feels … Mamdani taking pictures and basically humiliating himself right in front of Mr. Griffin‘s home.”
Paterson said Mamdani and many of his Democratic socialist supporters despise wealthy and successful people.
“They’re jealous and envious of what [other people] have. That is a terrible way to live your life,” he said.
“It’s a reflection of the lack of appreciation for what this city is about and what people had to do to make it that way. … Making comments that no one should ever be a billionaire — all that does is foment anger, and the people who it’s directed at now are threatening to protect themselves by leaving. I’m hoping they won’t do that.”
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a Post request for comment.
