Royalty Pharma and Cytokinetics Announce Expanded Strategic Funding Collaboration Totaling Up to $575 Million to Support Commercial Launch of Aficamten and to Advance R&D Pipeline

• Deal provides Cytokinetics with diversified access to capital as company advances its specialty cardiology franchise

NEW YORK and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Royalty Pharma plc (Nasdaq: RPRX) and Cytokinetics, Incorporated (Nasdaq: CYTK) today announced they have entered into a strategic funding collaboration providing capital to support the commercialization of aficamten and advance the company’s expanding cardiovascular pipeline while diversifying access to capital as the company advances its muscle biology-directed specialty cardiology business.

“We are excited to support Cytokinetics as the company advances towards commercialization of aficamten,” said Pablo Legorreta, Royalty Pharma’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. “This is our third transaction with Cytokinetics and highlights our ability to structure creative, win-win funding solutions and underscores the breadth of our funding capabilities. Aficamten has demonstrated an impressive clinical profile in its pivotal Phase 3 study, and we believe it has the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients with HCM, if approved by the FDA.”

“We have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Royalty Pharma and this expanded strategic collaboration reinforces our shared conviction in the value of our cardiac myosin focused pipeline of drug candidates,” said Robert I. Blum, Cytokinetics’ President and Chief Executive Officer. “This diversified access to capital from a trusted partner supports our launch of aficamten while also fortifying our capital structure and lowering our cost of capital as we become a sustainable company. We believe this deal delivers on stated objectives of advancing our later-stage portfolio of potential medicines alongside our goal of increasing shareholder value.”

“Both omecamtiv mecarbil and CK-586 represent strategic opportunities to expand our specialty cardiology pipeline in adjacent cardiovascular indications and help underserved patients,” said Fady I. Malik, M.D., Ph.D., Cytokinetics’ Executive Vice President of Research & Development. “Building on feedback from the FDA and EMA, we have designed a confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial intended to replicate treatment effects previously observed with omecamtiv mecarbil among higher risk patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. In addition, we look forward to advancing CK-586 to Phase 2 to further assess the pharmacology of cardiac myosin inhibition in sicker patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.”