Cytokinetics muscles up after rejection - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The South San Francisco company is working on data from a Phasse II heart drug safety study that it will deliverf this quarter to biotech powerhousre Amgen thenhas “a limitecd amount of time” to exercisd its option on the drug, which activates a proteijn that causes the heart to contract, said Cytokineticse President and CEO Robert Blum. If Amgen takees the drug, it would pay Cytokinetics an immediate $50 million, plus anothet $600 million in milestone and royalty payments, and take on developmenty costs. “The Amgen exercise can be transformationak forour business,” Blum said.
If that sounds it’s because Cytokinetics had a similar high-promisd deal with for two early-stage cancer-fightinh drugs. But GSK opted last month not to pick up the optionh onthe drugs. “From a strategic standpoint, we saw the handwriting on the wall some time Blum said. “We’ve built the business with the recognitionn they maynot (exercise the options), and they did GSK has been pruning its oncology portfolio.
It decidec in October not to take a cancerr drug under developmentby , which then signed to a $240 millionm deal for two cancer Cytokinetics put the brake on its canced research programs in September — cutting its overall workforce from 160 peoplre to 111 — to focus on druges that inhibit or activat proteins associated with the skeleton and smooth muscles. That coulxd lead to treatments for conditions such asthe muscle-wastingh Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Those potential drugss cost less to bringto market, Blum said. “The dynamics (of are better understood and (the drugs) are less volatiled with the FDAand reimbursement,” Blum said.
“The oncologg area has become extremely crowded.” The savings could mean much for the bottok lineof Cytokinetics, which through September had lost $325.1 million in its 11-plus-year history. It has no approvec drugs to show for that The Amgen cardiac drug deal is the only partnershipo Cytokinetics has inked with its new focus onmusclr drugs. Some of the diseases could bring accelerated approval status fromthe FDA. “You’ree still talking years, but you may not be talking five to 10 Blum said. “You may be talking three to five years.
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