Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Drug Development

BMS to buy MyoKardia for access to late-stage heart disease drug

The $13 billion deal will bolster the big pharma firm’s cardiovascular disease pipeline

by Lisa M. Jarvis
October 9, 2020 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 98, Issue 39

 

The molecular structure of mavacamten.

In a purchase designed to boost its cardiovascular disease drug portfolio, Bristol Myers Squibb will pay $13.1 billion in cash for MyoKardia. The centerpiece of the deal is mavacamten, a treatment for a chronic heart disease that could reach the market next year.

Mavacamten is an allosteric modulator of myosin, a protein in heart muscle fiber that binds to a second protein, actin, to control how the heart pumps blood. MyoKardia has been studying the compound in an inherited form of heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which in some people causes a blockage in the route that blood takes to exit the heart. People with HCM are prone to fatigue and shortness of breath and are at risk of stroke and heart failure.

In May, MyoKardia released data from a Phase 3 trial of mavacamten that enrolled 251 people with HCM. Everyone given the drug saw an increase in oxygen uptake and reported improvements in quality of life.

MyoKardia plans to use those data to ask the US Food and Drug Administration early next year to approve the drug. If it reaches the market, mavacamten will be the first drug to treat the underlying causes of HCM. Stock analysts have estimated it could reap $1.5 billion in annual sales by 2024.

BMS says the drug complements its existing cardiovascular disease portfolio, centered on the blood thinner Eliquis, which brought in over $2 billion in 2019 sales. The company plans to put its heart drug marketing heft behind mavacamten.

Advertisement

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.