10-K
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
(Mark One)
☑ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
or
☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
From the transition period from to
Commission file number: 000-50633
CYTOKINETICS, INCORPORATED
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
350 Oyster Point BoulevardSouth San Francisco, CA 94080
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(650) 624-3000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C.7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☑
The approximate aggregate market value of voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $2.0 billion as of June 30, 2022.(A)
(A) Excludes 34.8 million shares of common stock held by directors and executive officers, and any stockholders whose ownership exceeds ten percent of the shares outstanding, at June 30, 2022. Exclusion of shares held by any person should not be construed to indicate that such person possesses the power, directly or indirectly, to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of the registrant, or that such person is controlled by or under common control with the registrant.
As of February 27, 2023, the number of shares outstanding of the Registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, was 95,161,391 shares.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s Proxy Statement for its 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, no later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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CYTOKINETICS, INCORPORATED
FORM 10-K
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2022
INDEX
Page
Glossary of Terms 3
Forward Looking Statements Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 6
Summary of Principal Risk Factors 8
PART I
Item 1. Business 10
Item 1A. Risk Factors 31
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 60
Item 2. Properties 61
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 61
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 61
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 63
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 73
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 75
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 111
Item 9B. Other Information 113
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 113
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 114
Item 11. Executive Compensation 114
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 114
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 115
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Glossary of Terms
Unless the context requires otherwise, references to “Cytokinetics,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” in this Form 10-K (defined below) refer to Cytokinetics, Incorporated and its subsidiaries. References to “Notes” in this Form 10-K are to the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K. We also have used other specific terms in this Form 10-K, most of which are explained or defined below:
Term/Abbreviation Definition
2004 Plan Cytokinetics’ Amended and Restated 2004 Equity Incentive Plan
2026 Notes Cytokinetics’ 4% convertible senior notes due 2026
2027 Notes Cytokinetics’ 3.50% convertible senior notes due 2027
ACC American College of Cardiology
AHA American Heart Association
ALS amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
ALSFRS-R ALS Functional Rating Scale – Revised
ARR absolute risk reductions
BTR/W background therapy reduction/withdrawal
cGMP current Good Manufacturing Practice
China People's Republic of China (including the Hong Kong and Macau SARs)
CMC Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls
CMO Contract Manufacturing Organizations
Convertible Notes 2026 Notes and 2027 Notes
CPET cardiopulmonary exercise testing
CRL Complete Response Letter
CRO Contract Research Organization
CV cardiovascular
DMC Data Monitoring Committee
E.U. or EU European Union
EEA European Economic Area
eGFR estimated glomerular filtration rate
EMA European Medicines Agency
ESPP employee stock purchase plan
Exchange Act Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
FDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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FSRA fast skeletal regulatory activator
FSTA fast skeletal muscle troponin activator
Fundamental Change As defined in the 2027 Indenture
GAAP Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the U.S.
GCP Good Clinical Practice
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679)
HCM hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
HFrEF heart failure with reduced ejection fraction
HFSA Heart Failure Society of America
HHS U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
ICER Institute for Clinical and Economic Review
IND Investigational New Drug
IRA Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
IRB Institutional Review Board
KCCQ Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire
KCCQ-OSS KCCQ Overall Summary Score
Lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Oxford Finance LLC
LSM least square mean
LVEF left ventricular ejection fraction
LVOT left ventricular outflow tract
LVOT-G left ventricular outflow tract gradient
MAA Marketing Authorization Application
NDA New Drug Application
nHCM non-obstructive HCM
NOLs net operating loss carryforward
NYHA New York Heart Association
oHCM obstructive HCM
OLE Open-Label Extension
Oxford Oxford Finance LLC
Partial Redemption Limitation As defined in the 2027 Indenture
PSU Performance Stock Unit
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REMS Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy
RPDF Royalty Pharma Development Funding, LLC
RPFT RPI Finance Trust
RPI ICAV Royalty Pharma Investments 2019 ICAV
RSU Restricted Stock Unit
RTW ICAV RTW Investments ICAV for RTW Fund 1
RTW Royalty Holdings RTW Royalty Holdings Designated Activity Company
SAM systolic anterior motion
Section 382 Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code
Securities Act Securities Act of 1933, as amended
SGLT2 sodium-glucose cotransporter-2
SMA spinal muscular atrophy
SPA Special Protocol Assessment
SVC slow vital capacity
Tax Act Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
U.S. or US United States
This Form 10-K includes discussion of certain clinical studies relating to various in-line products and/or product candidates. These studies typically are part of a larger body of clinical data relating to such products or product candidates, and the discussion herein should be considered in the context of the larger body of data. In addition, clinical trial data are subject to differing interpretations, and, even when we view data as sufficient to support the safety and/or effectiveness of a product candidate or a new indication for an in-line product, regulatory authorities may not share our views and may require additional data or may deny approval altogether.
CYTOKINETICS and our C-shaped logo are registered trademarks of Cytokinetics in the U.S. and certain other countries. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names referred to in this report are the property of their respective owners.
The information contained on our website, our Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn pages or our Twitter accounts, or any third-party website, is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K.
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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
This report contains forward-looking statements indicating expectations about future performance and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, Section 21E of the Exchange Act, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that involve risks and uncertainties. We intend that such statements be protected by the safe harbor created thereby. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and our actual results and the timing of events may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about or relating to:
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the initiation, design, conduct, enrollment, progress, timing and scope of clinical trials and development activities for our drug candidates conducted by ourselves or our partners, including the anticipated timing for completion and announcement of results of our clinical trials, including SEQUOIA-HCM, and COURAGE-ALS, anticipated rates of enrollment for clinical trials and anticipated timing of results becoming available or being announced from clinical trials;
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guidance concerning revenues and net cash use for 2023;
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the sufficiency of existing resources to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months;
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our capital requirements and needs for additional financing;
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our expectations as to our cash utilization for 2023 and in any subsequent period;
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the results from the clinical trials, the non-clinical studies and chemistry, manufacturing, and controls activities of our drug candidates and other compounds, and the significance and utility of such results; anticipated interactions with regulatory authorities;
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our ability to ensure commercial availability of an antibody-based immunoassay for the dose optimization of omecamtiv mecarbil;
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our and our partners’ plans or ability to conduct the continued research and development of our drug candidates and other compounds;
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the timing and likelihood of regulatory approval for any of our other drug candidates;
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our expected roles in research, development or commercialization under our strategic alliances with our partners and collaborators;
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the properties and potential benefits of, and the potential market opportunities for, our drug candidates and other compounds, including the potential indications for which they may be developed;
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the sufficiency of the clinical trials conducted with our drug candidates to demonstrate that they are safe and efficacious;
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our receipt of milestone payments, royalties, reimbursements and other funds from current or future partners under strategic alliances;
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our ability to continue to identify additional potential drug candidates that may be suitable for clinical development;
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market acceptance of our drugs;
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changes in third party healthcare coverage and reimbursement policies;
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our plans or ability to commercialize drugs, with or without a partner, including our intention to develop sales and marketing capabilities;
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the focus, scope and size of our research and development activities and programs;
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the utility of our focus on the biology of muscle function, and our ability to leverage our experience in muscle contractility to other muscle functions;
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our ability to protect our intellectual property and to avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others;
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future payments and other obligations under loan, lease, and revenue interest agreements and the Convertible Notes;
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potential competitors and competitive products;
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retaining key personnel and recruiting additional key personnel;
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the potential impact of recent accounting pronouncements on our financial position or results of operations; and
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the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our research and development activities and business operations.
Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to:
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decisions by Ji Xing with respect to the timing, design and conduct of development and commercialization activities for aficamten or omecamtiv mecarbil in China and Taiwan;
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our ability to meet any of the conditions for disbursement and our receipt of any loan disbursements under the RP Loan Agreement;
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our ability to meet any of the conditions for disbursement of additional sale proceeds under the RP Aficamten RPA;
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our ability to enroll patients in our clinical trials by any particular date;
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our ability to complete our clinical trials by any particular date;
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our ability to enter into strategic partnership agreements for any of our programs on acceptable terms and conditions or in accordance with our planned timelines;
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our ability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms, if at all;
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our receipt of funds and access to other resources under our current or future strategic alliances, in the development, testing, manufacturing or commercialization of our drug candidates or slower than anticipated patient enrollment, in our or partners’ clinical trials, or in the manufacture and supply of clinical trial materials;
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failure by our contract research organizations, contract manufacturing organizations and other vendors to properly fulfill their obligations or otherwise perform as expected;
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results from non-clinical studies that may adversely impact the timing or the further development of our drug candidates and other compounds;
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the possibility the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies may delay or limit our or our partners’ ability to conduct clinical trials or may delay or withhold approvals for the manufacture and sale of our drug candidates;
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changing standards of care and the introduction of products by competitors or alternative therapies for the treatment of indications we target that may limit the commercial potential of our drug candidates;
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difficulties or delays in achieving market access, reimbursement and favorable drug pricing for our drug candidates and the potential impacts of health care reform;
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changes in laws and regulations applicable to drug development, commercialization or reimbursement;
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the uncertainty of protection for our intellectual property, whether in the form of patents, trade secrets or otherwise;
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potential infringement or misuse by us of the intellectual property rights of third parties;
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activities and decisions of, and market conditions affecting, current and future strategic partners;
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accrual information provided by and performance of our contract research organizations, contract manufacturing organizations, and other vendors;
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potential ownership changes under Internal Revenue Code Section 382; and
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the timeliness and accuracy of information filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by third parties.
In addition, such statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties discussed in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this document. Such statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict which factors will arise. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
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SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISK FACTORS
Risks Specific to our Research and Development Activities
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We recently received a CRL from FDA in response to our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil. The CRL stated that results from an additional clinical trial of omecamtiv mecarbil are required to establish substantial evidence of effectiveness for the treatment of HFrEF, with benefits that outweigh the risks. No assurance can be given that we will be able to address any of the deficiencies noted in the CRL and/or obtain FDA approval of our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil.
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Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the desired safety and efficacy of our drug candidates, including aficamten and reldesemtiv, which could prevent or significantly delay completion of clinical development and regulatory approval.
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The regulatory approval process is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain and may prevent our partners or us from obtaining approvals to commercialize some or all of our drug candidates.
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Our clinical trials are expensive, time-consuming and may be subject to delay.
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If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, including COURAGE-ALS and SEQUOIA-HCM, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.
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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to adversely impact our business and could materially and adversely affect our operations, as well as the businesses or operations of our or our partners, manufacturers, CROs or other third parties with whom we or our partners conduct business.
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The failure to successfully develop, validate and obtain regulatory clearance or approval of an antibody based immunoassay for plasma concentrations of omecamtiv mecarbil could harm our development and commercialization strategy for omecamtiv mecarbil in the United States.
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The failure to successfully develop, validate and obtain regulatory clearance or approval of an antibody based immunoassay for plasma concentrations of omecamtiv mecarbil could be required by EMA for approval of our MAA in the E.U. and as a result could delay our development and commercialization strategy for omecamtiv mecarbil in the E.U. and other countries of the EEA.
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We depend on CROs to conduct our clinical trials and have limited control over their performance. If these CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, or if we lose any of our CROs, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, if at all.
Risks Specific to our Commercial Operations
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Our competitors may develop drugs that are less expensive, safer and/or more effective than ours, which may diminish or eliminate the commercial success of any drugs that we may commercialize.
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Even if our drug candidates are approved, we may experience difficulties or delays in achieving market access, reimbursement and favorable drug pricing for our drug products.
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The commercial success of our products depends on the availability and sufficiency of third party payor coverage and reimbursement.
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We have no manufacturing capacity and depend on contract manufacturers to produce our clinical trial materials, including our drug candidates, and will have continued reliance on contract manufacturers for the development and commercialization of our potential drugs.
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We may not be able to successfully manufacture our drug candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing our drug candidates and commercializing resulting approved drugs, if any.
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If we or our partners receive regulatory approval for our drug candidates, we or they will be subject to ongoing obligations to and continued regulatory review by the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies, and may be subject to additional post-marketing obligations, all of which may result in significant expense and limit commercialization of our potential drugs.
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If physicians and patients do not accept our drugs, we may be unable to generate significant revenue, if any.
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Risks Specific to our Intellectual Property
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Our success depends substantially upon our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection relating to our drug candidates, compounds and research technologies.
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If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, the value of our technology could be materially adversely affected and our business would be harmed.
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If we are sued for infringing third-party intellectual property rights, it will be costly and time-consuming, and an unfavorable outcome could have a significant adverse effect on our business.
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We may undertake infringement or other legal proceedings against third parties, causing us to spend substantial resources on litigation and exposing our own intellectual property portfolio to challenge.
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We may become involved in disputes with our strategic partners over intellectual property ownership, and publications by our research collaborators and clinical investigators could impair our ability to obtain patent protection or protect our proprietary information, either of which would have a significant impact on our business.
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We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed trade secrets of their former employers.
Financial Risks
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We have a history of significant losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability and, as a result, you may lose part or all of your investment.
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We will need substantial additional capital in the future to sufficiently fund our operations.
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We have never generated, and may never generate, revenues from commercial sales of our drugs, and we may not have drugs to market for at least several years, if ever.
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We may not be entitled to obtain additional loan disbursements under the RP Loan Agreement or the RP Aficamten RPA.
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Our indebtedness and liabilities could limit the cash flow available for our operations, expose us to risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and impair our ability to satisfy our obligations under the 2026 Notes, the 2027 Notes and the RP Loan Agreement.
Legal and Compliance Risks
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Recently enacted laws, including the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, and potential future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain regulatory approval of, and to commercialize our products and affect the prices we may obtain upon commercialization.
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Our relationships with customers, healthcare providers, clinical trial sites and professionals and third-party payors will be subject to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse and other laws and regulations. If we fail to comply with federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, including healthcare, privacy and data security laws and regulations, we could face criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.
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PART I
ITEM 1.BUSINESS
Overview
We are a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing first-in-class muscle activators and next-in-class muscle inhibitors as potential treatments for debilitating diseases in which muscle performance is compromised and/or declining. We have discovered and are developing muscle-directed investigational medicines that may potentially improve the health span of people with devastating cardiovascular and neuromuscular diseases of impaired muscle function. Our research and development activities relating to the biology of muscle function have evolved from our knowledge and expertise regarding the cytoskeleton, a complex biological infrastructure that plays a fundamental role within every human cell. As a leader in muscle biology and the mechanics of muscle performance, we are developing small molecule drug candidates specifically engineered to impact muscle function and contractility.
Our research continues to drive innovation and leadership in muscle biology. All of our drug candidates have arisen from our cytoskeletal research activities. Our focus on the biology of the cytoskeleton distinguishes us from other biopharmaceutical companies, and potentially positions us to discover and develop novel therapeutics that may be useful for the treatment of severe diseases and medical conditions. Each of our drug candidates has a novel mechanism of action compared to currently marketed drugs, which we believe validates our focus on the cytoskeleton as a productive area for drug discovery and development. We intend to leverage our experience in muscle contractility to expand our current pipeline and expect to identify additional potential drug candidates that may be suitable for clinical development.
Corporate Strategy
As a leader in muscle biology and the mechanics of muscle performance, we are developing small molecule drug candidates specifically engineered to impact muscle function and contractility. Our goal is to discover, develop and commercialize novel drug products that modulate muscle function to improve patient health span, with the intent of establishing a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company.
In 2020, we articulated our five-year strategic plan,Vision 2025: “Leading with Science, Delivering for Patients,” designed to enable Cytokinetics to become the leading muscle biology biopharmaceutical company that meaningfully improves the lives of patients with diseases of impaired muscle function through access to novel medicines arising from its research.
The key components of our five-year Corporate Strategy are:
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Achieve regulatory approvals for at least two drugs arising from our pipeline. We are committed to fueling a diverse and expansive pipeline of muscle-directed drug candidates advancing toward regulatory approval. As we advance our drug candidates into later-stage clinical development, we extensively evaluate previous clinical trial designs and results to assess key learnings that may be applied to our late-stage clinical development activities. We believe this may result in more successful later-stage clinical development activities that may increase the likelihood of achieving regulatory success and deliver effective therapies to patients that can address the needs of people living with devastating diseases of muscle impairment. Pursuing a broad-based clinical development strategy may afford us the opportunity to not be reliant on the outcome of a singular clinical program or clinical trial result, thereby potentially mitigating the risk of clinical development and regulatory hurdles. We or our partners have been conducting extensive clinical trials for our most advanced drug candidates and we believe that three drug candidates may be poised to achieve potential regulatory approval by 2025 and we strive to develop compelling scientific, clinical and value-driven rationales that may lead to regulatory approvals.
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Build commercial capabilities to market and sell our medicines reflective of their innovation and value. With a focus on disease areas for which there are serious unmet medical needs, we direct our activities to potential commercial opportunities in concentrated and tractable customer segments, such as hospital specialists and disease-specific centers of excellence, which may be addressed by smaller, targeted sales forces. In preparing for the potential commercialization of our drug candidates directed to these markets, we are focusing our activities on the key issues facing, physicians, patients and payors, including the principal drivers of clinical and economic burdens associated with these diseases. We have established alliances and collaborations with leading academic institutions and professional societies to analyze clinical and claims data to better understand the real-world burden of disease from a clinical and economic standpoint. We believe this approach may inform the value proposition that our potential first-in-class and next-in-class therapies may offer to various stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem. Targeting unmet medical needs may provide us competitive advantages and support our development of a franchises in diseases involving muscle function. In the markets for our potential therapies, we believe that a company with limited resources may be able to compete effectively against larger, more established companies with greater financial and commercial resources. For these opportunities, we intend to build sales and marketing capabilities in North America and potentially in Europe with the goal of becoming a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company.
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Generate sustainable and growing revenues from product sales. As we move toward becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, we expect to evolve our corporate development strategies to raise capital through a combination of strategic partnerships and equity capital financings to one that is sustained from product generated revenues that are expected to grow over time. We expect to successfully commercialize at least two of our drug candidates in the U.S. and potentially in Europe and achieve growing profitability. Through prudent investment spending fueled by commercial returns alongside other potential strategic partnerships and royalty monetization deals, we seek to provide investor returns while continuing to conduct proprietary research to support future commercial programs. Additionally, we strive to ensure sustainable growth of product sales and long-term profitability through lifecycle management strategies.
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Double our development pipeline to include ten therapeutic programs. We believe that our extensive understanding of muscle biology and our proprietary research activities should enable us to discover and potentially to develop additional muscle directed drug candidates with novel mechanisms of action that may offer potential benefits not provided by existing drugs and which may have application across a broad array of diseases and medical conditions. Progressing related programs in parallel may afford us an opportunity to build a broader business that could benefit from multiple products that serve related clinical and commercial needs associated with impaired muscle function, muscle weakness and fatigue. In addition, this strategy may enable us to diversify certain technical, financial and operating risks by advancing several drug candidates in parallel. In 2020 we advanced five potential drug candidates through various stages of clinical development. As part of our five-year Corporate Strategy, we intend to expand our research discovery platform beyond muscle contractility to support doubling our pipeline to ten therapeutic programs.
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Expand our discovery platform to muscle energetics, growth and metabolism. We expect that we may be able to leverage our expertise in muscle contractility to expand muscle biology research programs related to other areas of muscle function and which may extend to the potential treatment of other serious, yet adjacent, diseases and conditions. As most muscle-related diseases are accompanied by defects in metabolism or mitochondrial function, we also anticipate that treatments that modulate contractility could be additive with therapeutics that boost metabolic capacity. We can augment our industry-leading expertise in muscle contractility by building similar expertise in mitochondrial biology and technologies. Strategies toward enhancing our discovery platform into muscle energetics and metabolism include building human and capital resources for mitochondrial and metabolism research capabilities, expanding strategic academic partnerships, engaging the mitochondrial research community, engaging the mitochondrial disease advocacy community, and evaluating therapeutic and technology platforms for potential in-licensing.
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Be the science-driven company people want to join and partner with. We build our science around patients and their families through authentic and ongoing engagement and are committed to transforming patients’ lives through our activities. Our goal is to provide employees with an opportunity to contribute to something bigger than any one of the individuals at the company. We believe that a commitment to a diverse, inclusive and respectful culture goes beyond what is “right” to do; it is foundational to building a successful, creative, and science driven company, and essential to develop a community of colleagues who are impassioned by our purpose to improve the lives of patients. As a patient-centric organization, we rely on an approach where clinical outcomes, patient experiences and patients’ goals for care intersect. We value our partnerships with industry, professional societies, advocacy organizations, vendors and academic institutions and aim to solicit ongoing feedback to ensure interests are aligned and collaborations are successful.
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Research and Development Programs
Our long-standing interest in the cytoskeleton has led us to focus our research and development activities on the biology of muscle function and, in particular, small molecule modulation of muscle contractility. We believe that our expertise in the modulation of muscle contractility is an important differentiator for us. Our preclinical and clinical experience in muscle contractility may position us to discover and develop additional novel therapies that have the potential to improve the health of patients with severe and debilitating diseases or medical conditions.
Small molecules that affect muscle contractility may have several applications for a variety of serious diseases and medical conditions. For example, heart failure is a disease often characterized by impaired cardiac muscle contractility which may be treated by modulating the contractility of cardiac muscle. Similarly, certain diseases and medical conditions associated with muscle weakness may be amenable to treatment by enhancing the contractility of skeletal muscle. Because the modulation of the contractility of different types of muscle, such as cardiac and skeletal muscle, may be relevant to multiple diseases or medical conditions, we believe we can leverage our expertise in these areas to more efficiently discover and develop potential drug candidates that modulate the applicable muscle type for multiple indications.
We segment our research and development activities related to muscle contractility by our cardiac muscle contractility program and our skeletal muscle contractility program. We also conduct research and development on novel treatments for disorders involving muscle function beyond muscle contractility.
Our research and development expenses were $240.8 million for 2022, $159.9 million for 2021, and $97.0 million for 2020.
Our Cardiac Muscle Program
Our cardiac muscle contractility program is focused on the cardiac sarcomere, the basic unit of muscle contraction in the heart. The cardiac sarcomere is a highly ordered cytoskeletal structure composed of cardiac myosin, actin and a set of regulatory proteins. Cardiac myosin is the cytoskeletal motor protein in the cardiac muscle cell. It is directly responsible for converting chemical energy into the mechanical force, resulting in cardiac muscle contraction. Our most advanced cardiac program is based on the hypothesis that activators of cardiac myosin may address certain adverse properties of existing positive inotropic agents. Current positive inotropic agents, such as beta-adrenergic receptor agonists or inhibitors of phosphodiesterase activity, increase the concentration of intracellular calcium, thereby increasing cardiac sarcomere contractility. The effect on calcium levels, however, also has been linked to potentially life-threatening side effects. In contrast, our novel cardiac myosin activators work by a mechanism that directly stimulates the activity of the cardiac myosin motor protein, without increasing the intracellular calcium concentration. They accelerate the rate-limiting step of the myosin enzymatic cycle and shift it in favor of the force-producing state. Rather than increasing the velocity of cardiac contraction, this mechanism instead lengthens the systolic ejection time, which results in increased cardiac function in a potentially more oxygen-efficient manner.
Our earlier stage cardiac program is based on the hypothesis that inhibitors of hyperdynamic contraction and obstruction of left ventricular blood flow may counteract the pathologic effects of mutations in the sarcomere that lead to hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. A targeted oral therapy addressing this disease etiology may improve symptoms, exercise capacity and potentially slow disease progression.
Omecamtiv mecarbil
We are developing omecamtiv mecarbil as a potential treatment across the continuum of care in heart failure both for use in the hospital setting and for use in the outpatient setting.
Omecamtiv mecarbil is a selective, small molecule cardiac myosin activator, the first of a novel class of myotropes designed to directly target the contractile mechanisms of the heart, binding to and recruiting more cardiac myosin heads to interact with actin during systole. Omecamtiv mecarbil is designed to increase the number of active actin-myosin cross bridges during each cardiac cycle and consequently augment the impaired contractility that is associated with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, or HFrEF.
HFrEF is a grievous condition that is estimated to affect more than 32 million people worldwide an estimated half of whom have reduced left ventricular function. It is the leading cause of hospitalization and readmission in people age 65 and older. Despite broad use of standard treatments and advances in care, the prognosis for patients with heart failure is generally poor. An estimated one in five people over the age of 40 are at risk of developing heart failure, and approximately 50% of people diagnosed with heart failure will die within five years of initial hospitalization. Approximately 2 million people in the U.S. are estimated to have an ejection fraction <30%, indicating they may have worsening heart failure.
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GALACTIC-HF
GALACTIC-HF is a Phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes clinical trial of omecamtiv mecarbil which was conducted by Amgen, in collaboration with Cytokinetics. The primary objective of this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter clinical trial is to determine if treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil when added to standard of care is superior to standard of care plus placebo in reducing the risk of cardiovascular death or heart failure events in patients with high risk chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. GALACTIC-HF was conducted under an SPA with the FDA. GALACTIC-HF completed enrollment in mid-2019, having enrolled 8,256 symptomatic chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction in over 1,000 sites in 35 countries who were either currently hospitalized for a primary reason of heart failure or had had a hospitalization or admission to an emergency room for heart failure within one year prior to screening. Patients were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil with dose titration up to a maximum dose of 50 mg twice daily based on the plasma concentration of omecamtiv mecarbil after initiation of drug therapy. The primary endpoint is a composite of time to cardiovascular death or first heart failure event, whichever occurs first, with heart failure event defined as hospitalization, emergency room visit, or urgent unscheduled clinic visit for heart failure. Secondary endpoints include time to cardiovascular death; patient reported outcomes as measured by the KCCQ Total Symptom Score; time to first heart failure hospitalization; and time to all-cause death.
GALACTIC-HF: Primary Results
The results of GALACTIC-HF show that after a median duration of follow-up of 21.8 months, the trial demonstrated a statistically significant effect of treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil to reduce risk of the primary composite endpoint of CV death or heart failure events (heart failure hospitalization and other urgent treatment for heart failure) compared to placebo in patients treated with standard of care. A first primary endpoint event occurred in 1,523 of 4,120 patients (37.0%) in the omecamtiv mecarbil group and in 1,607 of 4,112 patients (39.1%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.86, 0.99; p=0.025). This effect was observed without evidence of an increase in the overall rates of myocardial ischemic events, ventricular arrhythmias or death from cardiovascular or all causes.
The statistically significant reduction in the composite of heart failure events or CV deaths, without significant imbalances in the overall incidence of adverse events across treatment arms, was observed in one of the broadest and most diverse range of patients enrolled in a contemporary heart failure trial. GALACTIC-HF included both inpatients and outpatients, and with a high representation of participants with moderate to severe heart failure symptoms as well as lower ejection fraction, systolic blood pressure and renal function.
No reduction in the secondary endpoint of time to CV death was observed. Death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 808 (19.6%) patients treated with omecamtiv mecarbil and 798 patients (19.4%) assigned to placebo (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.92 to 1.11; p=0.86). The pre-specified analysis of change from baseline to week 24 in the KCCQ total symptom score by randomization setting (inpatient mean difference [95% CI]: 2.50 [0.54, 4.46], outpatient mean difference: -0.46 [-1.40, 0.48], joint P = 0.028) did not meet the significance threshold of P=0.002 based upon the multiplicity control testing procedure. No other secondary endpoints were met in accordance with the prespecified statistical analysis.
The effect of omecamtiv mecarbil was consistent across most prespecified subgroups and with a potentially greater treatment effect suggested in patients with a lower LVEF (LVEF ≤28%, n=>4,000, hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% CI 0.77, 0.92; interaction p=0.003). Omecamtiv mecarbil also significantly decreased NT-proBNP concentrations by 10% (95% CI 6-14%) at Week 24 compared to placebo.
The overall safety profile of omecamtiv mecarbil in GALACTIC-HF appeared to be consistent with data from previous trials. Adverse events and treatment discontinuation of study drug were balanced between the treatment arms. In general, the overall rates of myocardial ischemia, ventricular arrhythmias and death were similar between treatment and placebo groups. Additionally, there was no significant difference in the change in systolic blood pressure between baseline and at 24 or 48 weeks between the omecamtiv mecarbil and placebo groups. There was a small but significant decrease in heart rate in participants assigned to omecamtiv mecarbil compared to placebo at both timepoints. Median cardiac troponin I concentration increased 4 ng/L (95% CI 3-5; limit of detection, 6 ng/L) from baseline with omecamtiv mecarbil compared to placebo.
GALACTIC-HF: Further Analyses
Since our release of the primary results, we have conducted and announced supplemental and subgroup analyses suggesting that certain subgroups of patients treated with omecamtiv mecarbil in GALACTIC-HF may benefit more than the general patient population in such trial.
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For example, additional results showed that the effect of omecamtiv mecarbil on the primary composite endpoint in GALACTIC-HF was consistent across most prespecified subgroups and with a potentially greater treatment effect suggested in patients with a lower LVEF (LVEF ≤28%, n=4,456, hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% CI 0.77, 0.92; interaction p=0.003). Supplemental analyses of this lower ejection fraction subgroup in GALACTIC-HF showed that this potentially greater treatment effect in patients who received omecamtiv mecarbil was consistently observed in patients with characteristics that may indicate advanced heart failure status, such as being hospitalized within the last 3 months (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74 – 0.93, p=0.001), having New York Association Class III or IV heart failure (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.71 – 0.90, p<0.001), higher N-terminal-pro brain natriuretic peptide levels (HR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69 – 0.87, p<0.001), and lower blood pressures (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70 – 0.92, p=0.002). The ARR ranged from 5.2% to 8.1% in these subgroups as compared to the ARR of 2.1% observed in the overall population. Additionally, a supplemental analysis of the continuous relationship between ejection fraction and the hazard ratio for the primary composite endpoint in GALACTIC-HF suggested a potentially stronger treatment effect of omecamtiv mecarbil in patients with increasingly lower ejection fractions.
Another analysis assessed the effect of omecamtiv mecarbil on clinical outcomes in relationship to patient baseline ejection fraction by evaluating the effect of patient treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil based on quartiles of baseline EF defined as EF ≤22%, EF 23-28%, EF 29-32% and EF ≥33% as well as considering baseline EF as a continuous variable. The incidence of the primary outcome of first heart failure event or cardiovascular death increased with decreasing ejection fraction; in the lowest LVEF quartile (EF ≤22%) the incidence (35.6 per 100 patient-years) was almost 80% greater than in the highest EF quartile (EF ≥33%; 20 per 100 patient-years). Treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil demonstrated a 15% (HR 0.85; 95% CI 0.74-0.97; p = 0.016) and 17% (HR 0.83; 95% CI 0.73-0.95; p = 0.005) relative risk reduction in the lower two quartiles, respectively, compared to no difference in the upper two quartiles.
Analysis of ejection fraction as a continuous variable demonstrated a progressively larger treatment effect of omecamtiv mecarbil with decreasing ejection fraction. Accordingly, the absolute treatment effect on the primary composite endpoint also increased between the patients treated with placebo and omecamtiv mecarbil as baseline ejection fraction decreased such that in the lowest ejection fraction quartile, there was an absolute reduction of 7.4 events per 100 patient-years, with a number-needed-to-treat of 11.8 patients necessary to prevent an event over three years.
An analysis of patients with low blood pressure showed that there was a greater treatment effect from omecamtiv mecarbil on the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular death or first heart failure event than in patients without low blood pressure such that there was an absolute risk reduction of 9.8 events per 100 patient-years (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70, 0.94; interaction p=0.051). Patients with low blood pressure treated with omecamtiv mecarbil also experienced improvements in blood pressure over time as did those treated with placebo. Additionally, the incidence of treatment-emergent serious adverse events in patients with low blood pressure who received omecamtiv mecarbil (RR 0.88; 95% CI 0.82, 0.95; p<0.001) and adjudicated first stroke (RR 0.31; 95% CI 0.12, 0.79; p=0.009) was lower compared to placebo.
An analysis of Black patients participating in GALACTIC-HF showed that treatment with omecamtiv mecarbilresulted in a trend towards reduction in the primary endpoint by 18% (HR=0.82, 95% CI 0.64-1.04), corresponding to a reduction in the primary event rate of 7.7/100 patient-years with a number-needed-to-treat of 13 patients. This result, like the overall study results, was driven primarily by a reduction in HF hospitalizations (HR=0.80) and HF events (HR=0.82), with no effect on cardiovascular mortality (HR=1.03). There were no significant differences in adverse events in Black patients between the groups treated with omecamtiv mecarbil and placebo.
A further analysis indicated that the rate of the primary outcome in GALACTIC-HF was higher in hospitalized patients in the placebo group (38.3/100 person-years [PY]) than in outpatients (23.1/100 PY) with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.21 (95% CI 1.12, 1.31). There was a stepwise gradient in risk, with those randomized as outpatients in the placebo group within 3 months of a heart failure event at the highest risk (26.6/100 patient years (PY)) as compared with those 9-12 months post-event (19.0/100 PY) with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.20 (95% CI 1.01, 1.42), p for trend = 0.008). The effect of omecamtiv mecarbil versus placebo on the primary outcome was similar in hospitalized patients (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.78, 1.01) and outpatients (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.86, 1.02), indicating that omecamtiv mecarbil similarly reduced the risk of the primary outcome both when initiated in hospitalized patients and in outpatients. In both hospitalized patients and outpatients, the initiation of omecamtiv mecarbil was safe and well tolerated. Treatment-emergent serious adverse events occurred more frequently in patients randomized during hospitalization but did not differ significantly between the treatment groups.
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New Drug Application/Regulatory
On February 28, 2023, we announced that we received a CRL from the FDA’s Division of Cardiology and Nephrology regarding our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil for the treatment of HFrEF. According to the CRL, GALACTIC-HF is not sufficiently persuasive to establish substantial evidence of effectiveness for reducing the risk of heart failure events and cardiovascular death in adults with chronic heart failure with HFrEF, in lieu of evidence from at least two adequate and well-controlled clinical investigations. In addition, FDA stated that results from an additional clinical trial of omecamtiv mecarbil are required to establish substantial evidence of effectiveness for the treatment of HFrEF, with benefits that outweigh the risks. FDA’s decision to issue a CRL follows an FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee’s vote of 8 to 3 in December 2022 that the benefits of omecamtiv mecarbil do not outweigh its risks for the treatment of HFrEF.
We expect to request a meeting with FDA in order to understand FDA’s views regarding the CRL and what may be required to support potential approval of omecamtiv mecarbil in the United States. However, we have no plans to conduct an additional clinical trial of omecamtiv mecarbil. No assurance can be given that we will be able to address any of the deficiencies noted in the CRL and/or obtain FDA approval of our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil.
In December 2022, the EMA accepted for review our MAA seeking approval of omecamtiv mecarbil for the treatment of HFrEF in the E.U. and the other states of the EEA, and in November 2022, our partner, Ji Xing announced that the Center for Drug Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration of the People’s Republic of China had accepted the submission of the NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil for the treatment of HFrEF.
Ji Xing Collaboration for Greater China
On December 20, 2021, we entered into the Ji Xing OM License Agreement, pursuant to which we granted to Ji Xing an exclusive license to develop and commercialize omecamtiv mecarbil in China and Taiwan. Under the terms of the Ji Xing OM License Agreement, we may be eligible to receive from Ji Xing additional payments totaling up to $330.0 million for the achievement of certain commercial milestone events in China in connection to omecamtiv mecarbil. In addition, Ji Xing will pay us tiered royalties in the mid-teens to the low twenties range on the net sales of pharmaceutical products containing omecamtiv mecarbil in China and Taiwan, subject to certain reductions for generic competition, patent expiration and payments for licenses to third party patents. The Ji Xing OM License Agreement, unless terminated earlier, will continue on a market-by-market basis until expiration of the relevant royalty term.
Royalty Pharma Revenue Interest
In 2017, we entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement, which we refer to as the RP OM RPA, with Royalty Pharma Development Funding, LLC, or RPFT, and amended the RP OM RPA on January 7, 2022. Pursuant to the RP OM RPA, as amended, RPFT has a revenue interest entitling it to up to 5.5% of our and our affiliates’ and licensees’ worldwide net sales of omecamtiv mecarbil. If FDA approves omecamtiv mecarbil at any time after June 30, 2023, the royalty rate at which payments are owed to RPFT will be 5.5%.
Aficamten
Aficamten is a novel, oral, small molecule cardiac myosin inhibitor that our company scientists discovered. Aficamten arose from an extensive chemical optimization program conducted with attention to therapeutic index and pharmacokinetic properties that may translate into next-in-class potential in clinical development. Aficamten was purposely designed to reduce the hypercontractility that is associated with HCM. In preclinical models, aficamten reduces myocardial contractility by binding directly to cardiac myosin at a distinct and selective allosteric binding site, thereby preventing myosin from entering a force producing state. Aficamten reduces the number of active actin-myosin cross bridges during each cardiac cycle and consequently reduces myocardial contractility. This mechanism of action may be therapeutically effective in conditions characterized by excessive hypercontractility, such as HCM. The preclinical pharmacokinetics of aficamten were characterized evaluated and optimized for potential rapid onset, ease of titration and rapid symptom relief in the clinical setting. The initial focus of the development program for aficamten will include an extensive characterization of its pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamic (“PK/PD”) relationship as has been a hallmark of Cytokinetics’ industry-leading development programs in muscle pharmacology. The overall development program will assess the potential of aficamten to improve exercise capacity and relieve symptoms in patients with hyperdynamic ventricular contraction due to HCM.
HCM is a disease in which the heart muscle (myocardium) becomes abnormally thick (hypertrophied). The thickening of cardiac muscle leads to the inside of the left ventricle becoming smaller and stiffer, and thus the ventricle becomes less able to relax and fill with blood. This ultimately limits the heart’s pumping function, resulting in symptoms including chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, or fainting during physical activity. A subset of patients with HCM are at high risk of progressive disease which can lead to atrial fibrillation, stroke and death due to arrhythmias.
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FDA has granted aficamten orphan drug designation for the treatment of symptomatic HCM and Breakthrough Therapy Designation for aficamten for the treatment of oHCM.
REDWOOD-HCM
REDWOOD-HCM is a Phase 2, multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, dose finding clinical trial of aficamten in patients with symptomatic HCM.
In Cohorts 1 and 2 of REDWOOD-HCM, patients continued taking background medications exclusive of disopyramide. Results from Cohorts 1 and 2 showed that treatment with aficamten for 10 weeks resulted in statistically significant reductions from baseline compared to placebo in the average resting LVOT-G (p=0.0003, p=0.0004, Cohort 1 and Cohort 2, respectively) and the average post-Valsalva LVOT-G (p=0.001, p<0.0001, Cohort 1 and Cohort 2, respectively). A large majority of patients treated with aficamten achieved the target goal of treatment, defined as resting gradient <30 mmHg and post-Valsalva gradient <50 mmHg at Week 10, compared to placebo. Patients treated with aficamten also saw improvements in heart failure symptoms and reductions in NT-proBNP, a biomarker of cardiac wall stress.
Treatment with aficamten in Cohorts 1 and 2 of REDWOOD-HCM was generally well tolerated. The incidence of adverse events was similar between treatment arms. No serious adverse events were attributed to aficamten and no treatment interruptions occurred on aficamten. No new cases of atrial fibrillation in patients treated with aficamten were reported. In this dose-range finding trial, one patient experienced a transient decrease in LVEF that required dose adjustment but not dose interruption. LVEF returned to baseline within two weeks after the end of treatment in both cohorts, which was consistent with the reversibility of LVEF decreases that were similarly observed in healthy participants in the Phase 1 study of aficamten.
A subsequent analysis investigated changes from baseline in echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function after 10 weeks of treatment with aficamten compared with placebo. At baseline, all patients (n=41) enrolled in Cohorts 1 and 2 of REDWOOD-HCM had severe LVOT obstruction, 88% had associated SAM of the mitral valve, and 90% had mitral regurgitation. SAM occurs when the mitral valve leaflet gets pushed against the interventricular septum during systole, resulting in obstruction of the LVOT and mitral regurgitation. Measures of cardiac structure, diastolic and mitral valve function improved at Week 10 in patients treated with aficamten. There was a significant reduction in left atrial volume index (p<0.01) and a trend towards a reduction in left ventricular hypertrophy (left ventricular mass index; p=0.06). Treatment with aficamten also resulted in improved ventricular relaxation and filling, as indicated by a reduction in lateral E/e’ (p<0.01) and an increase in lateral e’ (p<0.05). Additionally, treatment with aficamten improved mitral valve dynamics as noted by a reduction in the proportion of patients with SAM (placebo: 92.3% at baseline to 75.0% at Week 10; aficamten: 85.7% at baseline to 35.7% at Week 10; p=0.038 for comparison to placebo) and a trend towards a reduction in those with eccentric mitral regurgitation (placebo: 25.0% at baseline to 33.3% at Week 10; aficamten: 42.9% at baseline to 7.1% at Week 10; p=0.055 for comparison to placebo) at Week 10. Together, these data point to evidence of early signs of improved cardiac function and structure and improved mitral valve dynamics after a 10-week treatment period with aficamten.
Cohort 3 of REDWOOD-HCM enrolled thirteen patients with symptomatic oHCM and a resting or post-Valsalva LVOT-G of ≥50 mmHg whose background therapy included disopyramide and, in the majority (11 out of 13 patients), a beta-adrenergic blocker. These patients remained symptomatic despite use of disopyramide and represent a group of patients resistant to available medical therapies. Patients in Cohort 3 demonstrated a substantial reduction in the mean (± SD) resting LVOT-G (from 50 ± 25 at baseline to 24 ± 17 mmHg at Week 10) and Valsalva LVOT-G (from 78 ± 27 to 50 ± 25 mmHg). For the resting LVOT-G, the least square mean difference (± SE) for the change from baseline to Week 10 was -28 ± 3.2 mmHg (p < 0.0001) and for the Valsalva LVOT-G was -27 ± 5.9 mmHg (p = 0.0002). The relief of obstruction was accompanied by a modest reduction in LVEF (from 74 ± 7% at baseline to 69 ± 7% at Week 10). For LVEF, the least square mean difference (± SE) for the change from baseline to Week 10 was -4.8 ± 1.9% (p = 0.018). There were no patients who experienced a reduction in LVEF below the prespecified safety threshold of 50%. Treatment with aficamten resulted in 6 of the 13 patients (46%) experiencing a complete hemodynamic response by Week 10, with the remaining 7 (54%) still eligible for dose escalation to the highest dose of aficamten (20 mg) employed in SEQUOIA-HCM, the Phase 3 trial. Eleven of 13 patients (85%) experienced improvement in NYHA class by at least one class. In addition to hemodynamic and functional capacity improvements, patients also experienced a significant improvement in NT-proBNP and trended to lower hs-troponin I. The safety and tolerability of aficamten were consistent with prior experience in Cohorts 1 and 2 of REDWOOD-HCM with no dose interruptions or treatment discontinuations and no serious adverse events. Coadministration of aficamten along with disopyramide and beta-blockers or calcium-channel blockers did not result in any significant electrocardiographic changes including in the QT-interval, or in blood pressure or heart rate.
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Cohort 4 of REDWOOD-HCM has completed enrollment. Cohort 4 enrolled, in an open label fashion, 30-40 patients with symptomatic nHCM receiving background medical therapy. At screening, patients must have a LVEF of ≥60%, an elevated NT-proBNP >300 pg/mL, and must not have resting or post-Valsalva LVOT gradients (<30 mmHg in each case). The primary objective is to determine the safety and tolerability of aficamten in patients with nHCM. Other objectives include the effect of aficamten on LVEF, NYHA Functional Class and cardiac biomarkers. All patients will receive up to three escalating doses of aficamten, with doses being adjusted based on echocardiography according to LVEF alone. Cohort 4 will employ doses of 5, 10 and 15 mg once daily. Overall treatment duration will be 10 weeks with a 4-week follow up period after the last dose. We expect to present results of Cohort 4 of REDWOOD-HCM at the American College of Cardiology Annual Meeting in March, 2023
SEQUOIA-HCM
SEQUOIA-HCM is a Phase 3 randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multi-center clinical trial designed to evaluate aficamten in patients with symptomatic oHCM on background medical therapy for 24 weeks. The primary objective is to assess the effect of aficamten on change in peak oxygen uptake (pVO2) measured by CPET from baseline to week 24. Secondary objectives include change in KCCQ score from baseline to week 12 and week 24, the proportion of patients with ≥1 class improvement in NYHA Functional Class from baseline to week 12 and week 24, change in post-Valsalva LVOT-G to week 12 and week 24, the proportion of patients with post-Valsalva LVOT-G <30 mmHg, and change in total workload during CPET to week 24.
SEQUOIA-HCM is open for enrollment. We have now enrolled more than two-thirds of the targeted 270 patients. In SEQUOIA-HCM, this trial is enrolling patients randomized on a 1:1 basis to receive aficamten or placebo in addition to standard-of-care treatment. Each patient will receive up to four escalating doses of aficamten or placebo based on echocardiographic guidance alone. At screening, patients enrolled in SEQUOIA-HCM must have a resting LVOT-G ≥30 mmHg, post-Valsalva peak LVOT-G ≥50 mmHg, and be NYHA Class II or III. Patients receiving aficamten will begin with 5 mg dosed once daily. At weeks 2, 4 and 6 patients will receive an echocardiogram to determine if they will be up-titrated to escalating doses of 10, 15 or 20 mg. Dose escalation will occur only if a patient has a post-Valsalva LVOT-G ≥30 mmHg and a biplane LVEF ≥55%. Patients who do not meet escalation criteria will continue to receive their current dose or may be down-titrated if appropriate.
We expect to announce topline results from SEQUOIA-HCM in the fourth quarter of 2023.
MAPLE-HCM
We are preparing for the second Phase 3 clinical trial of aficamten as monotherapy in patients with oHCM, MAPLE-HCM (Metoprolol vs Aficamten in Patients with LVOT Obstruction on Exercise Endpoints in HCM). We expect to begin MAPLE-HCM in the first half of 2023. MAPLE-HCM is a Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, active-comparator trial in patients with symptomatic oHCM and elevated LVOT gradient. It is expected to enroll approximately 170 patients. The primary endpoint is change in peak oxygen uptake (pVO2), assessed by CPET from baseline to Week 24. Secondary endpoints include change in NYHA class, KCCQ, N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and measures of structural remodeling.
FOREST-HCM (formerly REDWOOD-HCM OLE)
In May 2021, we announced that the first site had been activated to enroll patients in REDWOOD-HCM OLE, an open-label extension clinical study designed to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of aficamten in patients with symptomatic oHCM. Eligible patients were initially to have completed participation in REDWOOD-HCM. However, since initiation of the open-label extension clinical study, we expanded eligibility to include patients having participated in SEQUOIA-HCM, our first Phase 3 clinical trial of aficamten for the treatment of oHCM, and as a result, the trial has been renamed FOREST-HCM.
On May 23, 2022, we announced positive data relating to 38 patients, including 30 patients treated for 12 weeks and 19 patients treated for 24 weeks. The data showed that treatment with aficamten was associated with substantial reductions in the average resting LVOT-G (mean change from baseline (SD) = -32.6 (28) mmHg, p<0.0001 at 12 weeks, -32.8 (32.3) mmHg, p=0.0003 at 24 weeks) and Valsalva LVOT-G (-42.7 (38.7) mmHg, p<0.0001 at 12 weeks, -51.1 (35.3) mmHg, p<0.0001 at 24 weeks). These reductions started to occur within two weeks of treatment, were sustained through 24 weeks of treatment, and were achieved with only modest decreases in the average LVEF (-3.2 (4.2) %, p=0.0038 at 24 weeks). Compared to baseline (47% Class II, 53% Class III), NYHA Functional Class was improved in the majority of patients (p<0.0001 for improvement by one or more NYHA class), and no patients had a worsening of NYHA Class. At 12 weeks, 72% of patients improved by one class and 7% improved by two classes; at 24 weeks 61% of patients improved by one class and 17% improved by two classes. For patients reaching Week 24, 56% were Class I and 39% were Class II. There were also significant improvements in cardiac biomarkers including NTpro-BNP (reduction of 70% from baseline, p<0.001) and cardiac troponin (20% reduction, p=0.002). Treatment with aficamten was well-tolerated with one temporary discontinuation due to LVEF <50% and one temporary down-titration, neither related to drug. Both patients remain on treatment with aficamten.
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On September 30, 2022, we announced new data on the reduction and withdrawal of background standard of care medical therapy in patients treated with aficamten in FOREST-HCM. Patients in FOREST-HCM were classified as receiving standard of care therapy if they were being treated with at least a beta-blocker, nondihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, or disopyramide. Patients were eligible for BTR/W at the discretion of the site investigator, only after Week 12 and after having received a stable dose of aficamten for at least four weeks. Of 42 patients enrolled at the time of this analysis, 39 (93%) were taking ≥1 standard of care medication, and of those, 27 (69%) were receiving a beta-blocker only, 4 (10%) were receiving a calcium channel blocker only, 7 (18%) were receiving disopyramide and either a calcium channel blocker or beta-blocker, and 1 patient (3%) was receiving all three therapies. Of the 35 patients who had completed treatment with aficamten through Week 12, BTR/W was attempted in 20 patients. 17 patients (85%) achieved successful BTR/W, defined as at least one dose reduction of one medication to ≤50% of the baseline dose. Ten patients completely discontinued at least one medication, and 5 withdrew from all standard of care therapies. BTR/W was unsuccessful in three patients, who reinstituted a beta-blocker as a result of recurrence of symptoms or elevated LVOT-G. NYHA Functional Class and NT-proBNP and high-sensitivity troponin I levels remained stable before and after BTR/W. In 14 patients with an available assessment before and after BTR/W, BTR/W resulted in an increase in resting heart rate of 12 bpm (mean HR=74 ±10 bpm, p=0.0001) and Valsalva LVOT-G of 15 mmHg (mean Valsalva LVOT-G=42 ±26 mmHg, p=0.02). This data suggests that patients who achieved successful BTR/W experienced similar benefits from treatment with aficamten as those who remained on background standard of care therapy, and warrants further study.
On October 2, 2022, we announced new data on symptom improvement and quality of life related to treatment with aficamten in FOREST-HCM. This new analysis evaluated patients’ self-reported health status using the KCCQ and compared baseline values to those collected at Week 12 and Week 24. The KCCQ is a validated patient reported outcomes tool 1 used to evaluate heart failure symptoms and their impact on social and physical limitations as well as quality of life. Higher scores indicate better health status. As early as Week 12, patients experienced substantial and significant symptom improvements as measured by the change in their KCCQ scores. The KCCQ-OSS and all KCCQ sub-domain scores demonstrated these improvements, improvements which were also noted to be sustained through Week 24. At 12 and 24 weeks, the change from baseline (mean [SD]) change in KCCQ-OSS was 16.5 [16.7] (p<0.0001) and 17.6 [24.7] (p=0.0015). The proportion of patients with clinically important improvements (improvement ≥5 points on the KCCQ-OSS) was 72.7% at Week 12 and 72.0% at Week 24, and 36.4% of patients at Week 12 and 40.0% at Week 24 reported a very large clinical improvement (≥20 points). We will be presenting the results from twelve months of treatment with aficamten in FOREST-HCM at the American College of Cardiology 72nd Annual Scientific Session in March, 2023.
FOREST-HCM continues to enroll patients.
Ji Xing Collaboration for Greater China
On July 14, 2020, we entered into the Ji Xing Aficamten License Agreement, pursuant to which we granted to Ji Xing an exclusive license to develop and commercialize aficamten in China and Taiwan. Under the terms of the Ji Xing Aficamten License Agreement, we may be eligible to receive from Ji Xing milestone payments totaling up to $200.0 million for the achievement of certain development and commercial milestone events in connection to aficamten in the field of oHCM, and/or nHCM and other indications. In addition, Ji Xing will pay us tiered royalties in the low-to-high teens range on the net sales of pharmaceutical products containing aficamten in China and Taiwan, subject to certain reductions for generic competition, patent expiration and payments for licenses to third party patents. The Ji Xing Aficamten License Agreement, unless terminated earlier, will continue on a market-by-market basis until expiration of the relevant royalty term.
Royalty Pharma Revenue Interest
On January 7, 2022, we entered into a Revenue Participation Right Purchase Agreement, which we refer to as the RP Aficamten RPA, with Royalty Pharma Investments 2019 ICAV, which we refer to as RPI ICAV, pursuant to which RPI ICAV purchased rights to certain revenue streams from net sales of pharmaceutical products containing aficamten by us, our affiliates and our licensees in exchange for up to $150.0 million in consideration, $50.0 million of which was paid on the closing date, $50.0 million of which was paid to us on March 10, 2022 following the initiation of the first pivotal trial in oHCM for aficamten and $50.0 million of which is payable following the initiation of the first pivotal clinical trial in nHCM for aficamten. The RP Aficamten RPA also provides that the parties will negotiate terms for additional funding if we achieve proof of concept results in certain other indications for aficamten, with a reduction in the applicable royalty if we and RPI ICAV fail to agree on such terms in certain circumstances.
Pursuant to the RP Aficamten RPA, RPI ICAV purchased the right to receive a percentage of net sales equal to 4.5% for annual worldwide net sales of pharmaceutical products containing aficamten up to $1 billion and 3.5% for annual worldwide net sales of pharmaceutical products containing aficamten in excess of $1 billion, subject to reduction in certain circumstances.
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CK-136
CK-136 is a novel, selective, oral, small molecule cardiac troponin activator. In preclinical models, CK-136 increases myocardial contractility by binding to cardiac troponin through an allosteric mechanism that sensitizes the cardiac sarcomere to calcium, facilitating more actin-myosin cross bridge formation during each cardiac cycle thereby resulting in increased myocardial contractility. Similar to cardiac myosin activation, preclinical research has shown that cardiac troponin activation does not change the calcium transient of cardiac myocytes.
Dosing of patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial of CK-136 commenced in December 2022. The primary objective of this Phase 1 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single and multiple ascending dose trial is to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of CK-136 when administered orally as single or multiple doses to healthy participants. The study design includes three groups of at least eight participants in single ascending dose cohorts and four groups of at least eight participants in multiple-dose ascending cohorts. A final optional cohort will include eight participants in an open-label, 2-period crossover arm to investigate the effect of food on CK-136.
Our Skeletal Muscle Contractility Program
Our skeletal muscle contractility program is focused on the activation of the skeletal sarcomere, the basic unit of skeletal muscle contraction. The skeletal sarcomere is a highly ordered cytoskeletal structure composed of skeletal muscle myosin, actin, and a set of regulatory proteins, which include the troponins and tropomyosin. This program leverages our expertise developed in our ongoing discovery and development of cardiac sarcomere activators.
We believe that our skeletal sarcomere activators may lead to new therapeutic options for diseases and medical conditions associated with neuromuscular dysfunction and potentially also conditions associated with aging and muscle weakness and wasting. The clinical effects of muscle weakness and wasting, fatigue and loss of mobility can range from decreased quality of life to, in some instances, life-threatening complications. By directly improving skeletal muscle function, a small molecule activator of the skeletal sarcomere potentially could enhance functional performance and quality of life in patients suffering from diseases or medical conditions associated with skeletal muscle weakness or wasting, such as ALS, SMA, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or sarcopenia (general frailty associated with aging).
ALS is a progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. These motor neurons carry messages from the brain to the spinal cord and, ultimately, to the muscles that are necessary for voluntary and involuntary movement and function. in people living with ALS, motor neurons progressively die and the brain can no longer communicate with the muscles through the spinal cord. As muscles are used less and less frequently, they can atrophy, causing people with ALS to lose the ability to perform everyday activities, such as walking, speaking, and eating. ALS also affects the diaphragm, an essential muscle responsible for breathing, so people with ALS eventually lose their ability to breathe on their own. The average life expectancy for ALS patients is three to five years after diagnosis and death is generally caused by respiratory failure. There is no known cause or cure for ALS.
Reldesemtiv
We are developing reldesemtiv, a FSTA, as a potential treatment for people living with debilitating diseases and conditions associated with muscular weakness, and/or muscle fatigue, including ALS.
Reldesemtiv is an investigational drug candidate intended to slow the rate of calcium release from the regulatory troponin complex of fast skeletal muscle fibers. Contraction of skeletal muscles is driven by the sarcomere, the fundamental unit of muscle contraction, which contains myosin, a protein which converts chemical energy into mechanical force through its interaction with another protein, actin. This interaction is regulated by other proteins including troponin and tropomyosin, and is dependent on changes in calcium. By slowing the rate of calcium release, reldesemtiv sensitizes the sarcomere to calcium, leading to an increase in muscle contractility.
Reldesemtiv has demonstrated pharmacological activity in preclinical models and evidence of potentially clinically relevant pharmacodynamic effects in humans. The FDA granted reldesemtiv orphan drug designation for the potential treatment of ALS. The EMA granted reldesemtiv orphan medicinal product designation for the potential treatment of ALS.
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FORTITUDE-ALS
Reldesemtiv was the subject of FORTITUDE-ALS. This Phase 2 trial enrolled 458 eligible ALS patients who were randomized (1:1:1:1) to receive either 150 mg, 300 mg or 450 mg of reldesemtiv or placebo dosed orally twice daily for 12 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint of FORTITUDE-ALS was the change from baseline in the percent predicted SVC at 12 weeks. Secondary endpoints included slope of the change from baseline in the mega-score of muscle strength measured by hand held dynamometry and handgrip dynamometry in patients on reldesemtiv; change from baseline in the ALSFRS-R; incidence and severity of treatment-emergent adverse events; and plasma concentrations of reldesemtiv at the sampled time points during the study. Exploratory endpoints measured included the effect of reldesemtiv versus placebo on self-assessments of respiratory function made at home by the patient with help as needed by the caregiver; disease progression through quantitative measurement of speech production characteristics over time; disease progression through quantitative measurement of handwriting abilities over time; and the change from baseline in quality of life (as measured by the ALS Assessment Questionnaire-5) in patients on reldesemtiv.
In FORTITUDE-ALS, reldesemtiv did not achieve statistical significance for a pre-specified dose-response relationship in its primary endpoint of change from baseline in SVC after 12 weeks of dosing (p=0.11). Similar analyses of ALSFRS-R and slope of the Muscle Strength Mega-Score yielded p-values of 0.09 and 0.31, respectively. However, patients on all dose groups of reldesemtivdeclined numerically less than patients on placebo for SVC and ALSFRS-R, with larger differences emerging over time.
While the dose-response analyses for the primary and secondary endpoints did not achieve statistical significance at the level of 0.05, in a post-hoc analysis pooling the doses together, patients who received reldesemtiv in FORTITUDE-ALS declined less than patients who received placebo. The trial showed numerical effects favoring reldesemtiv across dose levels and timepoints with clinically meaningful magnitudes of effect observed at 12 weeks for the primary and secondary endpoints. The differences between reldesemtivand placebo in SVC and ALSFRS-R total score observed after 12 weeks of treatment were still evident at follow-up, four weeks after the last dose of study drug.
The incidence of early treatment discontinuations, serious adverse events and clinical adverse events in FORTITUDE-ALS were similar between placebo and active treatment arms. The most common clinical adverse effects in the trial included fatigue, nausea and headache. The leading cause for early termination from FORTITUDE-ALS for patients who received placebo was progressive disease; the leading cause for early termination for patients who received reldesemtivwas a decline in cystatin C based eGFR, a measure of renal function. Elevations in transaminases and declines in cystatin C eGFR were dose-related.
Post-hoc analyses from FORTITUDE-ALS demonstrated that, in the combined middle and faster progressing tertiles of patients, the decline in the ALSFRS-R total score from baseline to week 12 in patients who received any dose of reldesemtiv was significantly smaller than the decline on placebo, while no significant difference between reldesemtiv and placebo was observed in slower progressing patients.
Additional post-hoc analyses from FORTITUDE-ALS evaluated how baseline patient characteristics impacted the effect of treatment with reldesemtiv versus placebo. When patients were divided into faster, middle and slower progressing tertiles based on pre-study ALSFRS-R progression rates, the middle and fastest progressing tertiles of patients combined showed a 27% difference at 12 weeks between patients receiving reldesemtiv versus placebo (1.15 ALSFRS-R points, p=0.011), compared to 18% (0.4 points; p=0.43) in the slowest progressing tertile. In general, patients with a longer symptom duration were slower progressors; 59% of those with SD >24 months were in the slowest tertile. Most patients who were minimally affected with an ALSFRS-R ≥45 at baseline were also slow progressors. In comparing the treatment effect of slow progressing patients with symptoms ≤24 months and a baseline ALSFRS-R score of ≤44 to the original primary analysis population, the effect size and statistical significance increased, despite reducing the number of analyzed patients. In an analysis of the total study population (n=458), combining all patients who received reldesemtiv and comparing to those who received placebo, the change from baseline to week 12 in the ALSFRS-R total score showed a LSM difference of 0.87 (p=0.013). However, limiting the analysis population to patients with symptoms ≤24 months and a baseline ALSFRS-R score of ≤44 (n=272), the LSM difference was 1.84 (p=0.0002). Together, these post-hoc analyses indicate that the impact of treatment with reldesemtiv was more apparent in patients with faster pre-study rates of progression, which include patients with short symptom duration and lower baseline ALSFRS-R scores.
A subgroup analyses of FORTITUDE-ALS showed that the effect of reldesemtiv on patients with ALS was similar whether or not patients were also receiving RADICAVA® (edaravone) and/or RILUTEK® (riluzole).
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COURAGE-ALS
COURAGE-ALS is the Phase 3 clinical trial of reldesemtiv in patients with ALS, which is currently open for enrollment. COURAGE-ALS has enrolled over 450 patients or more than three-quarters of our target patient enrollment with a goal to enroll approximately 555 patients with ALS. Patients will be randomized 2:1 to receive 300 mg of reldesemtiv or matching placebo dosed orally twice daily for 24 weeks, followed by a 24-week period in which all patients will receive 300 mg of reldesemtiv twice daily. Eligible patients will be within the first two years of their first symptom of muscle weakness, have a vital capacity of ≥65% predicted, and a screening ALSFRS-R ≤44. Patients currently taking stable doses of RADICAVA® (edaravone) and/or RILUTEK® (riluzole) will be permitted and randomization stratified accordingly. The primary efficacy endpoint will be change from baseline to 24 weeks in ALSFRS-R. Secondary endpoints include combined assessment of ALSFRS-R total score; time to onset of respiratory insufficiency and survival time up to week 24 using a joint rank test; change from baseline to 24 weeks for vital capacity; ALSAQ-40; and bilateral handgrip strength. Two unblinded interim analyses by the DMC are planned. The first will assess for futility, 12 weeks after approximately one-third or more of the planned sample size is randomized. A second interim analysis will also assess for futility, and there will be an option for a fixed increase in total enrollment if necessary to augment the statistical power of the trial. This Phase 3 clinical trial design builds on insights gained from FORTITUDE-ALS, further exploring the hypothesis that fast skeletal muscle activation with reldesemtiv may be an important therapeutic strategy in ALS.
On October 10, 2022, we announced that the DMC for COURAGE-ALS, recently convened to conduct the first planned interim analysis of this ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial which assessed for the potential of futility. The DMC reviewed unblinded data from COURAGE-ALS and recommended that conduct of the clinical trial of reldesemtiv continue. The first interim analysis was triggered twelve (12) weeks after approximately one-third or more of the intended number of patients were randomized to participate in COURAGE-ALS. A second interim analysis, which is anticipated to occur in the first half of next year, will also assess for potential futility and will also allow for a fixed increase in total enrollment, if deemed necessary, to augment the statistical power of the trial.
COURAGE-ALS OLE
COURAGE-ALS OLE is an open-label extension clinical study designed to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of reldesemtiv in people with ALS. Patients will be eligible for COURAGE-ALS OLE after completing their participation in COURAGE-ALS. COURAGE-ALS OLE is currently enrolling patients.
Astellas Revenue Interest
Reldesemtiv was developed as part of our previous collaboration with Astellas. Under our Fast Skeletal Regulatory Activator Agreement with Astellas, which we refer to as the Astellas FSRA Agreement, Astellas agreed to pay one-third of the out-of-pocket clinical development costs which may be incurred in connection with our Phase 3 clinical trial of reldesemtiv in ALS, up to a maximum contribution by Astellas of $12 million. In exchange, we will pay Astellas a low- to mid- single digit royalty on sales of reldesemtiv in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and the E.U. until the later of (i) ten years following the first commercial sale of such product in a major market country, or (ii) December 31, 2034, subject to certain royalty reduction provisions. We will not owe Astellas royalties on sales of reldesemtiv in any other country.
Ongoing Research in Skeletal Muscle Activators
We are conducting translational research in preclinical models of disease and muscle function with FSTAs to explore the potential clinical applications of this novel mechanism in diseases or conditions associated with skeletal muscle dysfunction.
Beyond Muscle Contractility
We developed preclinical expertise in the mechanics of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle that extends from proteins to tissues to intact animal models. Our translational research in muscle contractility has enabled us to better understand the potential impact of small molecule compounds that increase skeletal or cardiac muscle contractility and to apply those findings to the further evaluation of our drug candidates in clinical populations. In addition to contractility, other major functions of muscle play a role in certain diseases that could benefit from novel mechanism treatments. Accordingly, our knowledge of muscle contractility may serve as an entry point to the discovery of novel treatments for disorders involving muscle functions other than muscle contractility. We are leveraging our current understandings of muscle biology to investigate new ways of modulating these other aspects of muscle function for other potential therapeutic applications.
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Manufacturing Resources and Product Supply
Our drug candidates require precise high-quality manufacturing that is compliant with good manufacturing processes (or foreign equivalent) and other applicable laws. We have no manufacturing capabilities and rely on third party sources for the supply or sourcing of raw materials, the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the manufacture and packaging of finished drug products for both clinical trial materials and commercial supply.
We have established relationships with leading contract manufacturers in North America and Western Europe for the manufacture and supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drug product for use in our clinical trials. Clinical trial materials sourced from contract manufacturers generally have longer lead times than commercial product, have a higher cost per unit as a result of smaller batch sizes, and may be more difficult to manufacture to necessary specifications. As a result, we endeavor to seek contract manufacturers with proven manufacturing capabilities and quality standards whom we can rely on for timely supply. For our portfolio of small molecules, we continue to expand our network through well-established and reputable third-party contract manufacturers for our CMC development and manufacturing that have good regulatory standing, suitable manufacturing capabilities and capacities. These third parties must comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including FDA’s cGMP, the E.U.’s Guidelines on Good Distribution Practice (cGDP), as well as other stringent regulatory requirements enforced by the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies, as applicable, and are subject to routine inspections by such regulatory agencies. In addition, through our third-party contract manufacturers and data service providers, we continue to provide serialized commercial products as required to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.
We monitor and evaluate the performance of our third-party contract manufacturers on an ongoing basis for compliance with these requirements and to affirm their continuing capabilities to meet both our commercial and clinical needs. We employ highly skilled personnel with both technical and manufacturing experience to diligently manage the activities at our third-party contract manufacturers and other supply chain partners, and our quality department audits them on a periodic basis.
In the event any of our drug candidates were to be approved for commercial marketing by the FDA or any other regulatory authorities, we would need to enter into contractual arrangements with contract manufacturers for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging of finished drug product for commercial use.
We have contract manufacturing arrangements in place with leading contract manufacturers for the development and supply of the active pharmaceutical ingredient and finished drug product for aficamten and reldesemtiv for use in our clinical trials, including SEQUOIA-HCM and COURAGE-ALS.
Competition
There are many companies focused on the development of small molecules for the treatment HFrEF, HCM, ALS and other diseases that our drugs are intended to treat. Our competitors and potential competitors include major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic research institutions, clinical reference laboratories and government agencies that are pursuing research activities similar to ours. Many of the organizations competing with us have greater capital resources, larger research and development staff and facilities, deeper regulatory expertise and more extensive product manufacturing and commercial capabilities than we do, which may afford them a competitive advantage.
Competition for Omecamtiv Mecarbil
We believe the principal competition for omecamtiv mecarbil, if ultimately approved for sales and marketing by FDA and/or other regulatory agencies for the treatment of HFrEF includes generic drugs, such as milrinone, dobutamine or digoxin, categories of generic therapies, including beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), and branded drugs such as Corlanor® (ivabradine), Entresto® (sacubitril/valsartan) and Verquvo® (vericiguat). omecamtiv mecarbil could also potentially compete against other novel drug candidates and therapies in development, such as those being developed by, but not limited to, Novartis AG, Merck & Co., Inc., Bayer AG, AstraZeneca PLC and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. omecamtiv mecarbil may also compete with currently approved drugs, such as in the SGLT2 inhibitor class, that have either expanded or are planning to expand their labels to include treatment of patients with heart failure, including Forxiga® (dapagliflozin), Invokana® (canagliflozin), and Jardiance® (empagliflozin). The competitive landscape for HFrEF is already crowded and evolving rapidly, especially given the addition of SGLT2 inhibitors as AHA/ACC/HFSA guideline directed medical therapy for HFrEF. SGLT2 inhibitors have steadily gained market share over the previous two years. In addition, there are a number of medical devices both marketed and in development for the potential treatment of patients living with heart failure.
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We believe that our ability to successfully compete will depend on, among other things:
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efficacy, safety and reliability of omecamtiv mecarbil, both alone and in combination with other therapies;
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the timing and scope of regulatory approval;
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our ability to manufacture and sell commercial quantities of omecamtiv mecarbil product to the market;
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our ability to successfully commercialize omecamtiv mecarbil and secure coverage and adequate reimbursement with affordable patient copay in approved indications;
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product acceptance by physicians and other health care providers;
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if required in connection to regulatory approval by FDA and/or other regulatory authorities, the availability of an antibody-based immunoassay to timely and properly perform blood tests for omecamtiv mecarbil concentration levels on patients to whom omecamtiv mecarbil is prescribed;
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price competition, particularly of generic products;
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protection of our intellectual property, including our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights against potential generic competition; and
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the availability of substantial capital resources to fund development and commercialization activities.
Competition for Aficamten
If aficamten is approved for sales and marketing by the FDA or other regulatory authorities for the treatment of HCM, we believe it will likely compete with Camzyostm (mavacamten), a first in class cardiac myosin inhibitor marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb. In addition to Camzyostm, other companies, including but not limited to Novartis AG, Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead, Edgewise Therapeutics, Imbria and Tenaya Therapeutics, are conducting clinical trials and pre-clinical activities in HCM and could complete with aficamten.
As a condition to its FDA approval, Camzyostm is subject to a REMS program that may be slowing its market uptake. We cannot predict whether FDA will impose a similar REMS program as a condition to a potential, future approval of aficamten or whether the FDA will alter or lessen the REMS program for Camzyostm altering the competitive landscape. Despite the challenges associated with a REMS program, Bristol Myers Squibb has been able to enroll many physicians in its training program and has been able to start new patients on therapy. We expect that this will increase over time with more experience with this class of drugs.
We believe that our ability to successfully compete will depend on, among other things:
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efficacy, safety and reliability of aficamten, both alone and in combination with other therapies;
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the timing and scope of regulatory approval;
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our ability to complete clinical development and obtain regulatory approval for aficamten;
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the imposition by FDA or other regulatory authorities of a REMS program that is less burdensome to healthcare providers and patients than the REMS program that Camzyostm is subject to;
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our ability to manufacture and sell commercial quantities of aficamten product to the market;
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our ability to successfully commercialize aficamten and secure coverage and adequate reimbursement in approved indications;
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product acceptance by physicians and other health care providers;
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protection of our intellectual property, including our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights against potential generic competition; and
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the availability of substantial capital resources to fund development and commercialization activities.
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Competition for Reldesemtiv
If reldesemtiv is approved for sales and marketing by the FDA or other regulatory authorities for the treatment of ALS, we believe it will likely compete with Radicavatm (edaravone), marketed by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, and Relyvriotm (AMX0035), marketed by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals. These are the first two FDA approved drugs for the treatment of ALS since riluzole in 1995. In addition, we may then also compete with other potential new therapies for ALS that are currently being developed by companies including, but not limited to, AB Science, AKAVA Therapeutics, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, Biogen, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Ferrer, Ionis, Medicinova, Inc., Orphazyme, Revalesio Corporation and Seelos Therapeutics. The dearth of approved products and the remaining significant unmet need in ALS has created a strong demand within the ALS community for additional new therapies that slow the decline in the disease or maintain the function of patients living with this disease. Therefore, we have seen a trend of significant new patient starts for new therapies that become approved.
We believe that our ability to successfully compete will depend on, among other things:
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efficacy, safety and reliability of reldesemtiv, both alone and in combination with other therapies;
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the timing and scope of regulatory approval;
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our ability to complete clinical development and obtain regulatory approval for reldesemtiv;
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our ability to manufacture and sell commercial quantities of reldesemtiv product to the market;
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our ability to successfully commercialize reldesemtiv and secure coverage and adequate reimbursement in approved indications;
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product acceptance by physicians and other health care providers;
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protection of our intellectual property, including our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights against potential generic competition; and
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the availability of substantial capital resources to fund development and commercialization activities.
Intellectual Property Resources
Our policy is to seek patent protection for the technologies, inventions and improvements that we develop that we consider important to the advancement of our business. As of December 31, 2022, we owned, co-owned or licensed 73 issued U.S. patents, over 650 issued patents in various foreign jurisdictions, and over 430 additional pending U.S. and foreign patent applications. We also rely on trade secrets, technical know-howand continuing innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. Our commercial success will depend on obtaining and maintaining patent protection and trade secret protection for our drug candidates and technologies and our successfully defending these patents against third-party challenges. We will only be able to protect our technologies from unauthorized use by third parties to the extent that valid and enforceable patents cover them or we maintain them as trade secrets.
With regard to our drug candidates directed to muscle biology targets, we have a U.S. patent covering omecamtiv mecarbil, U.S. patents covering our skeletal muscle sarcomere activators including, but not limited to reldesemtiv, and a U.S. patent covering aficamten, which expire in 2027, 2031 and 2039, respectively, unless extended or otherwise adjusted. We also have issued patents in various foreign jurisdictions and additional U.S. and foreign patent applications pending for these drug candidates. It is not known or determinable whether other patents will issue from any of our other pending applications or what the expiration dates would be for any other patents that do issue.
In relation to our collaborations, our partners may develop or have developed, solely or with us, intellectual property rights in connection with our drug candidates. Our collaboration agreements generally contain provisions regarding ownership, prosecution and maintenance, assignment and license rights to enable us to protect and benefit from intellectual property rights that are developed with or by our partners.
Our drug candidates are still in clinical development and have not yet been approved by the FDA. If any of these drug candidates are approved, then pursuant to federal law, we may apply for an extension of the U.S. patent term for one patent covering the approved drug, which could extend the term of the applicable patent by up to a maximum of five additional years.
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The degree of future protection of our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. Due to evolving legal standards relating to the patentability, validity and enforceability of patents covering pharmaceutical inventions and the claim scope of these patents, our ability to enforce our existing patents and to obtain and enforce patents that may issue from any pending or future patent applications is uncertain and involves complex legal, scientific and factual questions. The standards that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its foreign counterparts use to grant patents are not always applied predictably or uniformly and are subject to change. To date, no consistent policy has emerged regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents. Thus, we cannot be sure that any patents will issue from any pending or future patent applications owned by, co-owned by, or licensed to us. Even if patents do issue, we cannot be sure that the claims of these patents will be held valid or enforceable by a court of law, will provide us with any significant protection against competitive products, or will afford us a commercial advantage over competitive products. For example:
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we or our licensors might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications or issued patents;
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we or our licensors might not have been the first to file patent applications for the inventions covered by our pending patent applications or issued patents;
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others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;
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some or all of our or our licensors’ pending patent applications may not result in issued patents or the claims that issue may be narrow in scope and not provide us with competitive advantages;
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our and our licensors’ issued patents may not provide a basis for commercially viable drugs or therapies or may be challenged and invalidated by third parties;
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our or our licensors’ patent applications or patents may be subject to interference, post-grant proceedings, opposition or similar legal and administrative proceedings that may result in a reduction in their scope or their loss altogether;
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we may not develop additional proprietary technologies or drug candidates that are patentable; or
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the patents of others may prevent us or our partners from discovering, developing or commercializing our drug candidates.
The defense and prosecution of intellectual property infringement suits, interferences, post-grant proceedings, oppositions and related legal and administrative proceedings are costly, time-consuming to pursue and divert resources. The outcome of these types of proceedings is uncertain and could significantly harm our business. For example, an unknown third party has filed an opposition against a granted European patent relating to compositions of omecamtiv mecarbil. Although we are defending the patent, we cannot be certain that the patent will be upheld as valid. If our European patent is invalidated, our intellectual property position in Europe could be weakened and it could have a negative impact on our business.
Our ability to commercialize drugs depends on our ability to use, manufacture and sell those drugs without infringing the patents or other proprietary rights of third parties. U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist that may be relevant to the therapeutic areas and chemical compositions of our drug candidates. While we are aware of certain relevant patents and patent applications owned by third parties, there may be issued patents or pending applications of which we are not aware that could cover our drug candidates. Because patent applications are often not published immediately after filing, there may be currently pending applications, unknown to us, which could later result in issued patents that our activities with our drug candidates could infringe.
The development of our drug candidates and the commercialization of any resulting drugs may be impacted by patents of companies engaged in competitive programs with significantly greater resources. This could result in the expenditure of significant legal fees and management resources.
We also rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are often difficult to protect, especially outside of the United States. While we believe that we use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our employees, consultants, contractors, partners and other advisors may unintentionally or willfully disclose our trade secrets to competitors. Enforcing a claim that a third party had illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets would be expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome would be unpredictable. Even if we are able to maintain our trade secrets as confidential, our competitors may independently develop information that is equivalent or similar to our trade secrets.
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We seek to protect our intellectual property by requiring our employees, consultants, contractors and other advisors to execute nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements upon commencement of their employment or engagement, through which we seek to protect our intellectual property. Agreements with our employees also preclude them from bringing the proprietary information or materials of third parties to us. We also require confidentiality agreements or material transfer agreements from third parties that receive our confidential information or materials.
For further details on the risks relating to our intellectual property, please see the risk factors under Item 1A of this report, including, but not limited to, the risk factors entitled “Our success depends substantially upon our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection relating to our drug candidates and research technologies” and “If we are sued for infringing third-party intellectual property rights, it will be costly and time-consuming, and an unfavorable outcome would have a significant adverse effect on our business.”
Compliance with Government Regulation
The FDA and comparable regulatory agencies in state and local jurisdictions and in foreign countries impose substantial requirements upon the clinical development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of drugs. These agencies and other federal, state and local entities regulate research and development activities and the testing, manufacture, quality control, labeling, storage, record keeping, approval, advertising and promotion of our drug candidates and drugs.
In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and implementing regulations. The process required by the FDA before our drug candidates may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:
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completion of extensive preclinical laboratory tests, preclinical animal studies and formulation studies, all performed in accordance with the FDA’s good laboratory practice regulations;
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submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before clinical trials may begin;
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performance of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the drug candidate for each proposed indication in accordance with GCP;
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submission of a NDA to the FDA, which must usually be accompanied by payment of a substantial user fee;
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satisfactory completion of an FDA preapproval inspection of the manufacturing facilities at which the product is produced to assess compliance with cGMP regulations and FDA audits of select clinical investigator sites to assess compliance with GCP; and
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FDA review and approval of the NDA prior to any commercial marketing, sale or shipment of the drug.
Similar regulatory procedures generally apply in countries outside of the United States. This testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort and financial resources, and we cannot be certain that any approvals for our drug candidates will be granted on a timely basis, if at all.
Non-clinical tests include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry, formulation and stability, and studies to evaluate toxicity and pharmacokinetics in animals. The results of non-clinical tests, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted as part of an IND application to the FDA. The IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day period, raises concerns or questions about the conduct of the proposed clinical trial, including concerns that human research subjects may be exposed to unreasonable health risks. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. Our submission of an IND or a foreign equivalent, or those of our collaborators, may not result in authorization from the FDA or its foreign equivalent to commence a clinical trial. A separate submission to an existing IND must also be made for each successive clinical trial conducted during product development. Further, an independent IRB or its foreign equivalent for each medical center proposing to conduct the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial before it commences at that center and it must monitor the clinical trial until completed. The FDA, the IRB or their foreign equivalents, or the clinical trial sponsor may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk.
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Clinical Trials. For purposes of an NDA or equivalent submission and approval, clinical trials are typically conducted in the following three sequential phases, which may overlap:
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Phase 1: Phase 1 trials include the initial introduction of a drug candidate into humans. These studies may be conducted in patients, but are usually conducted in healthy volunteer subjects. These studies are designed to determine the metabolic and pharmacologic actions of the drug candidate in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, to gain early evidence on effectiveness.
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Phase 2: Phase 2 trials include the early controlled clinical studies conducted to obtain some preliminary data on the effectiveness of the drug candidate for a particular indication or indications in patients with the disease or condition. This phase of testing also helps determine the common short-term side effects and risks associated with the drug candidate. These clinical trials are generally conducted in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to make an initial determination of potential efficacy of the drug candidate for specific targeted indications and to determine dose tolerance and optimal dosage. Multiple Phase 2 clinical trials may be conducted by the sponsor to obtain information prior to beginning larger and more expensive Phase 3 clinical trials. Phase 2a clinical trials generally are designed to study the pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic properties and to conduct a preliminary assessment of safety of the drug candidate over a measured dose response range. In some cases, a sponsor may decide to conduct a Phase 2b clinical trial, which is a second, typically larger, confirmatory Phase 2 trial that could, if positive and accepted by a regulatory authority, support approval of a drug candidate.
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Phase 3: Phase 3 clinical trials are then undertaken in large patient populations to further evaluate dosage, to provide substantial evidence of clinical efficacy and to further test for safety in an expanded and diverse patient population at multiple, geographically dispersed clinical trial sites. Phase 3 trials are also intended to provide an adequate basis for extrapolating the results to the general population and transmitting that information in the drug labeling. Phase 3 studies usually include several hundred to several thousand people, and are usually longer in duration than Phase 2 trials.
At any time during the conduct of a clinical trial, the FDA or a foreign equivalent can impose a clinical hold on the trial if it believes the trial is unsafe or that the protocol is clearly deficient in design in meeting its stated objectives, which requires the conduct of the trial to cease until the clinical hold is removed. In some cases, the FDA or foreign equivalent may condition approval of marketing approval for a drug candidate on the sponsor’s agreement to conduct additional clinical trials to further assess the drug’s safety and effectiveness after marketing approval, known as Phase 4 clinical trials.
The clinical trials we conduct for our drug candidates, both before and after approval, and the results of those trials, are generally required to be included in a clinical trials registry database that is available and accessible to the public via the internet. A failure by us to properly participate in the clinical trial database registry could subject us to significant civil monetary penalties.
Health care providers in the United States, including research institutions from which we or our partners obtain patient information, are subject to privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and state and local privacy laws. In the E.U., these entities are subject to the Directive 95/46-EC of the European Parliament on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and individual E.U. member states implementing additional legislation. The General Data Protection Regulation (E.U.) 2016/679 is a regulation in E.U. law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the E.U. and the EEA. Other countries have similar privacy legislation. We could face substantial penalties if we knowingly receive individually identifiable health information from a health care provider that has not satisfied the applicable privacy laws. In addition, certain privacy laws and genetic testing laws may apply directly to our operations and/or those of our partners and may impose restrictions on the use and dissemination of individuals’ health information and use of biological samples.
New Drug/Marketing Approval Application. The results of drug candidate development, preclinical testing and clinical trials are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA. The NDA also must contain extensive manufacturing information. In addition, the FDA may require that a proposed REMS, be submitted as part of the NDA if the FDA determines that it is necessary to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks. Similar, and in some cases additional, requirements apply in foreign jurisdictions for marketing approval applications for drugs in those jurisdictions. The FDA may refer the NDA to an advisory committee for review, evaluation and recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA often, but not always, follows the advisory committee’s recommendations. The FDA may also require preapproval inspections of manufacturing operations and clinical trial sites during the course of NDA review, and findings arising from any of these inspections may delay or prevent the approval of the NDA. The FDA may deny approval of an NDA by issuing a CRL if the applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied, or it may require additional clinical data, including data in a pediatric population, or an additional Phase 3 clinical trial or impose other conditions that must be met in order to secure final approval for an NDA.
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Even if such data are submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the NDA does not satisfy the criteria for approval. Data from clinical trials are not always conclusive and the FDA may interpret data differently than we or our partners do. Once issued, the FDA or foreign equivalent may withdraw a drug approval if ongoing regulatory requirements are not met or if safety problems occur after the drug reaches the market. In addition, the FDA or its foreign counterparts may require further testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials, and surveillance or restrictive distribution programs to monitor the effect of approved drugs which have been commercialized. The FDA and its foreign counterparts have the power to prevent or limit further marketing of a drug based on the results of these post-marketing programs. Drugs may be marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label may be subject to significant liability. However, physicians may, in their independent medical judgment, prescribe legally available products for off-label uses. The FDA does not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments but the FDA does restrict manufacturer’s communications on the subject of off-label use of their products. Further, if there are any modifications to a drug, including changes in indications, labeling or manufacturing processes or facilities, we may be required to submit and obtain prior FDA approval of a new NDA or NDA supplement, or the foreign equivalent, which may require us to develop additional data or conduct additional preclinical studies and clinical trials.
Satisfaction of FDA regulations and requirements or similar regulations and requirements of state, local and foreign regulatory agencies typically takes several years. The actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the drug candidate or disease. Government regulation may delay or prevent marketing of drug candidates for a considerable period of time and impose costly procedures upon our activities. The FDA or any other regulatory agency may not grant approvals for new indications for our drug candidates on a timely basis, if at all. Even if a drug candidate receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific disease states, patient populations and dosages or restrictive distribution programs. Further, even after regulatory approval is obtained, later discovery of previously unknown problems with a drug may result in restrictions on the drug or even complete withdrawal of the drug from the market. Delays in obtaining, or failures to obtain, regulatory approvals for any of our drug candidates would harm our business. In addition, we cannot predict what future U.S. or foreign governmental regulations may be implemented.
Orphan Drug Designation. Some jurisdictions, including the United States, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. The FDA grants orphan drug designation to drugs intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States.
An FDA orphan drug designation does not shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process. If a drug candidate that has an orphan drug designation receives the first FDA marketing approval for the indication for which the designation was granted, then the approved drug is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity. This means that the FDA may not approve another company’s application to market the same drug for the same indication for a period of seven years, except in certain circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the drug with orphan exclusivity or if the holder of the orphan drug designation cannot assure the availability of sufficient quantities of the orphan drug to meet the needs of patients with the disease or condition for which the designation was granted. Competitors may receive approval of different drugs or biologics for the indications for which the orphan drug has exclusivity.
Special Protocol Assessment. A sponsor may request an SPA agreement with FDA on the Phase 3 clinical trial protocol design and analysis that will form the primary basis of an efficacy claim. Even if the FDA agrees to the design, execution and analyses proposed in protocols reviewed under the SPA process, the FDA may revoke or alter its agreement if public health concerns emerge that were unrecognized at the time of the SPA agreement, or a substantial scientific issue essential to determining safety or efficacy is identified after testing has begun. An SPA does not guarantee that an NDA will be approved.
Other Regulatory Requirements. Any drugs manufactured or distributed by us or our partners pursuant to FDA approvals or their foreign counterparts are subject to continuing regulation by the applicable regulatory authority, including recordkeeping requirements and reporting of adverse experiences associated with the drug. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and other applicable regulatory authorities, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by these regulatory authorities for compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements, including cGMPs, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third-party manufacturers. Failure to comply withthe statutory and regulatory requirements can subject a manufacturer to possible legal or regulatory action, such as warning letters, suspension of manufacturing, seizure of product, injunctive action or possible civil penalties. We cannot be certain that we or our present or future third-party manufacturers or suppliers will be able to comply with the cGMP regulations and other ongoing FDA and other regulatory requirements. If our present or future third-party manufacturers or suppliers are not able to comply with these requirements, the FDA or its foreign counterparts may halt our or our partners’ clinical trials, require us to recall a drug from distribution, or withdraw approval of the NDA for that drug.
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