Cytokinetics' SMA candidate improves time to muscle fatigue in Phase II

Cytokinetics Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTK) reported data from ambulatory patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in a Phase II trial showing that reldesemtiv led to dose-dependent increases in time to muscle fatigue from baseline to week eight as measured by 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) and Maximum Expiratory Pressure (MEP). The data were presented at the Cure SMA Conference in Dallas.

At week eight, twice-daily reldesemtiv led to increases in 6MWD compared with placebo of 7.72 meters at the 150 mg dose (p=0.4684) and 24.89 meters at the 450 mg dose (p=0.0584). Low- and high-dose reldesemtiv also led to increases in MEP from baseline to week eight compared with placebo of 11.69 and 13.15 cm H2O, respectively (p=0.0378 and p=0.0298). Cytokinetics said there were no "meaningful differences" between reldesemtiv and placebo in Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale-Extended (HFMS-E), Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM), Timed Up and Go (TUG) or forced vital capacity (FVC)...