Eyeing a potential market launch, Astellas orders up a $95M third course of Cytokinetics’ pipeline
Whatever Astellas learned about Cytokinetics $CYTK in the three years since first signing on as a collaborator, the experience must have given its research team plenty of confidence in the biotech’s future. Astellas is announcing today that it’s coming back for a bigger share of the pipeline, its third big portion of Cytokinetics’ technology and muscle activation therapeutics.
Astellas is committing $95 million in the deal. That covers $65 million up front in exchange for an option on the development and commercialization of tirasemtiv, Cytokinetics’ lead muscle drug now in late-stage development, for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). And there’s another $30 million to pay for a mid-stage ALS study for another muscle activator in the pipeline, CK-2127107. If Astellas picks up its option, Cytokinetics can gain a total of more than $100 million in the deal.
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