Cytokinetics initiates trial of potential heart drug

The drug, a novel small-molecule activator of cardiac myosin, will be tested in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial in healthy volunteers aimed at testing its safety and tolerability. The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of CK-1827452 will also be examined.

The dose-escalation trial is designed to identify the maximally tolerated dose of a six-hour intravenous infusion of CK-1827452. The effect of CK-1827452 on the left ventricular function of the healthy volunteers will be evaluated using serial echocardiograms. Importantly, because of the crossover design of this clinical trial, the volunteers will be acting as their own controls to compare the effects of escalating doses of CK-1827452 to those of placebo.

“Based on non-clinical data in normal animals and also animals with heart failure, we believe this drug candidate may increase the indices of left ventricular systolic function, such as stroke volume and ejection fraction, in healthy volunteers,” stated Andrew Wolff, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Cytokinetics.

Cardiac myosin activators directly activate the cardiac myosin motor protein and are a potential next-generation treatment for acute and chronic heart failure.