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UK biotech company Amgen is acquiring the rights to Cytokinetics’s experimental heart drug CK-1827452 at present being trialled for the treatment of heart failure.
Amgen will pay $50 million (£31.6m) upfront and up to $600 million in the future, depending on the drug’s success. CK-1827452 is a novel, small-molecule, direct activator of cardiac myosin, the motor protein that causes cardiac contraction.
Amgen had earlier paid $75m for the option to the drug, and decided to exercise the option after seeing more clinical data, according to the New York Times.
Copyright Press Association 2009
