Amgen announced that it is ending its decade-long heart failure collaboration with Cytokinetics, following disappointing study results.
Amgen will give back the rights to two investigational cardiovascular drugs, Omecamtiv mecarbil and AMG 594.
Omecamtiv mecarbil, an investigational selective cardiac myosin activator, was studied in GALACTIC-HF, a Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. AMG 594, a novel mechanism selective cardiac troponin activator, is in phase 1 development for HFrEF and other types of heart failure.
Cytokinetics, a California-based biotech, presented GALACTIC-HF data at a virtual session of the American Heart Association scientific meeting on Nov. 13, which was accompanied by publication of data in the New England Journal of Medicine. While the trial demonstrated that treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil reduced risk of the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular death or heart failure events by 8% compared to placebo, Amgen had set a bar at 15% risk reduction as being clinically meaningful. Moreover, no reduction in the secondary endpoint of time to CV death was observed.
Read the press release