Astellas walks away from $450M+ Cytokinetics pact after taking a few extra months to see progress
Months after losing longtime partner Amgen on its lead heart drug, Cytokinetics is waving goodbye to another ally — and with it, more than $450 million in potential milestones.
Cytokinetics said in an SEC filing last week that Astellas is officially walking away from a pact to research skeletal sarcomere activators for diseases associated with muscle weakness. The companies had extended the research term of their partnership — which was initially set to expire on Dec. 31 — through March of this year to finish work they couldn’t get done during the pandemic, Cytokinetics CEO Robert Blum told Endpoints News. But on April 27, Astellas gave written notice that it’s hitting the exit.
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