Cytokinetics heart drug succeeds in closely watched study, shares surge

[December 28, 2023]  By Bhanvi Satija and Puyaan Singh

(Reuters) -Cytokinetics said on Wednesday that its experimental heart disease drug met the main goal of a keenly awaited late-stage study, putting it on track to compete with a rival treatment from Bristol Myers Squibb.

Analysts called the data a "home-run" and said the treatment aficamten's safety and efficacy compared favourably to Bristol's Camzyos.

Shares of the San Francisco-based Cytokinetics surged over 80% to touch a more than a 19-year high of $83.82, on track to add as much as $3.74 billion to its market cap.

The success of the company and the study are "inextricably linked" at this point, said Oppenheimer analyst Justin Kim, adding that it could bring in about $2 billion in peak U.S. sales.

CEO Robert Blum said that Cytokinetics spent a lot of time with analysts and investors discussing "what would good look like" and the data met the "high expectations" set ahead of the announcement.

The company plans to seek marketing approval for the drug in the United States and Europe in the second half of 2024 to treat obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where heart muscles become stiff and can cause cardiac arrest.

Aficamten helped significantly improve patients' exercise capacity, the study's main goal, compared to placebo after 24 weeks of treatment.

Peak oxygen capacity, measured in terms of milliliters per minute per kilogram of body weight, improved by 1.74 points on average, versus the 1.4 point improvement seen in the study of Bristol's drug.

At least two analysts said the data reflects aficamten's "best-in-class" potential and could be supportive of buyout interest in Cytokinetics.

Cytokinetics has attracted interest from at least one major drugmaker and other bidders may have been waiting for the data, Bloomberg reported in October.

Treatment with aficamten was not interrupted in study due to lower levels of the heart's ability to pump blood from the left ventricle.

(Reporting by Khushi Mandowara, Bhanvi Satija and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Shailesh Kuber)

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