CYTK 10-K & 10-Q changes, risk factors and insider trading

The size of the potential market for aficamten or our other product candidates is difficult to estimate and, if any of our assumptions are inaccurate, the actual markets for our product candidates may be smaller than our estimates. If the market opportunities for any product candidates we develop are smaller than we believe they are, or if any approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our potential revenues may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.

Our potential market opportunity is based on a number of internal and third-party estimates and resources, including, without limitation, our estimates and research, as well as industry and general publications and research, surveys and studies conducted by third parties, which may be incorrect. Our estimated potential market opportunity for cardiac myosin inhibitors in HCM is based on the following assumptions: our understanding of the prevalence of HCM in the general population from published epidemiological studies and analysis of longitudinal claims data, the percentage split of diagnosed obstructive HCM and non-obstructive HCM patients derived from market research and patient transaction databases, the percentage of available symptomatic patients not adequately managed by the current standard of care among diagnosed HCM patients, rates of patient compliance and persistence, based on patient transaction database and/or third-party market research. The conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates and the market data supporting these assumptions and estimates may change at any time or otherwise be inaccurate, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors.

Our total addressable market will ultimately depend upon, among other things, the willingness of patients and HCPs to utilize cardiac myosin inhibitors, the number of actual treatable symptomatic patients on cardiac myosin inhibitors therapy over time, the subset of eligible HCM patients included in the final label for each of our product candidates, if approved for sale for these indications, acceptance and accessibility by the medical community and patients, market share, drug pricing and reimbursement across payer types (i.e., Medicare, commercial, Medicaid, etc.). The number of patients with HCM, HFpEF or HFrEF in the United States and other major markets and elsewhere may turn out to be materially lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our product candidates or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would harm our results of operations and our business. If our conclusions, analysis or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our total addressable market may be meaningfully smaller than we have estimated, our future growth opportunities and sales growth may be impaired, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We compete with companies that have developed drugs or are developing drug candidates for cardiovascular diseases, diseases and conditions associated with muscle weakness or wasting and other diseases for which our drug candidates may be useful treatments. We will also compete for market share against large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and smaller companies that are collaborating with larger pharmaceutical companies, new companies, academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations. Many of these competitors, either alone or together with their partners, may develop new drug candidates that will compete with ours. Many of these competitors have larger research and development programs or substantially greater financial resources than we do. If our competitors market drugs that are less expensive, safer and/or have similar or better efficacy than our potential drugs, or that reach the market sooner than our potential drugs, we may not achieve commercial success.

The commercial success of our products depends on the availability and sufficiency of third‑party payor coverage and reimbursement.

Patients in the United States and elsewhere generally rely on third‑party payors to reimburse part or all of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. Accordingly, market acceptance of our products is dependent on the extent to which third‑party coverage and reimbursement is available from government health administration authorities (including in connection with government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid in the United States), private healthcare insurers and other healthcare funding organizations. Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval. Even if we obtain coverage for a given drug product, the timeframe from approval to coverage could be lengthy, inadequate, and/or the associated reimbursement rate may not be adequate to cover our costs, including research, development, intellectual property, manufacture, sale and distribution expenses, or may require co‑payments that patients find unacceptably high.

We currently have limited interactions and relationships with payors. Our ability to engage with US payors and secure coverage may improve as FDA review of our NDA advances. Over time, we anticipate our drugs will be adopted by our patients as indicated by their labels once they are approved by regulatory authorities. To achieve this adoption, our drugs will need to be widely reimbursed and listed in formularies of major pharmacy benefit managers and payors in the U.S. These major pharmacy benefit managers and payors include Medicare, Medicaid, VA, DoD, TriCare, and commercial payors. The process to achieve coverage with pharmacy benefit managers and payors can be time consuming, is not guaranteed and if achieved can impact profitability given the level of rebates often required.

Coverage and reimbursement policies for drug products can differ significantly from payor to payor as there is no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug products among third‑party payors in the United States. There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement as the process of determining coverage and reimbursement is often time‑consuming and costly which will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage or adequate reimbursement will be obtained. It is difficult to predict at this time what third-party will decide with respect to coverage and reimbursement for our products. Coverage policies and third party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

In addition, there is significant uncertainty regarding the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare products. We may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products. If third-party payors do not consider our products to be cost-effective compared to other therapies, the payors may not cover our products as a benefit under their plans, or if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a profitable basis.

Additionally, to the extent required by regulatory authorities for the safe and effective use of any of our future marketed products, we or our partners may develop companion diagnostic tests for use with our product candidates such as with omecamtiv mecarbil. Companion diagnostic tests require coverage and reimbursement separate and apart from the coverage and reimbursement for their companion pharmaceutical or biological products. Similar challenges to obtaining coverage and reimbursement, applicable to pharmaceutical products, will apply to companion diagnostics and could adversely impact the commercial prospects of omecamtiv mecarbil or any other drug we may develop that requires a companion diagnostic test.

If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient third‑party coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products, the commercial success of our drug products may be greatly hindered and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We have no manufacturing capabilities and depend on contract manufacturers to produce our clinical trial materials, including our drug candidates, and will have continued reliance on contract manufacturers for the development and commercialization of our potential drugs.

We do not operate manufacturing facilities for clinical or commercial production of our drug candidates and rely on CMOs for the manufacture of finished drug product and active pharmaceutical ingredient. We have limited experience in drug formulation and manufacturing, and we lack the resources and the capabilities to manufacture any of our drug candidates on a clinical or commercial scale.

In addition, under our license and collaboration agreements, we have committed to providing Sanofi and Bayer with supply of aficamten for development and commercialization of aficamten in China, Taiwan and Japan, which we will have to source from our contract manufacturers. We expect to rely on contract manufacturers to supply all future drug candidates for which we conduct development, as well as other materials required to conduct our clinical trials, and to fulfil our obligations under our license and collaboration agreements.

If any of our existing or future contract manufacturers fail to, or are unable to perform satisfactorily or if any of the raw materials or drug products are subject to restrictive import/export controls, it could delay development or regulatory approval of our drug candidates or commercialization of our drugs, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenues, and also lead to our breach of one of our license and collaboration agreements, giving rise to the ability to terminate such agreements and other adverse consequences as stipulated in such agreements. In addition, if a contract manufacturer fails to, or is unable to, perform as agreed, our ability to collect damages may be contractually limited.

Switching manufacturers or manufacturing sites would be difficult and time-consuming because the number of potential manufacturers is limited. In addition, before a drug from any replacement manufacturer or manufacturing site can be commercialized, the FDA and, in some cases, foreign regulatory agencies, must approve that site. These approvals would require regulatory testing and compliance inspections. A new manufacturer or manufacturing site also would have to be educated in, or develop substantially equivalent processes for, production of our drugs and drug candidates. It may be difficult or impossible to transfer certain elements of a manufacturing process to a new manufacturer or for us to find a replacement manufacturer on acceptable terms quickly, or at all, either of which would delay or prevent our ability to develop drug candidates and commercialize any resulting drugs.

We may not be able to successfully manufacture our drug candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing our drug candidates and commercializing approved drug products, if any.

To date, our drug candidates have been manufactured in quantities adequate for preclinical studies and early through late-stage clinical trials. In order to conduct large scale clinical trials for a drug candidate and for commercialization of the resulting drug if that drug candidate is approved for sale, we will need to manufacture some drug candidates in larger quantities and validate the repeatability of those manufacturing processes. We may not be able to successfully repeat or increase the manufacturing capacity for any of our drug candidates, whether in collaboration with third-party manufacturers or on our own, in a timely or cost-effective manner or at all. Significant changes or scale-up of manufacturing may require additional validation studies, which are costly and which regulatory authorities must review and approve. In addition, quality issues may arise during those changes or scale-up activities because of the inherent properties of a drug candidate itself or of a drug candidate in combination with other components added during the manufacturing and packaging process, or during shipping and storage of the finished product or active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Our drug candidates require precise high-quality manufacturing. The failure to achieve and maintain high manufacturing standards in compliance with cGMP, including failure to document and detect, control, analyze and resolve anticipated or unanticipated manufacturing errors or the frequent occurrence of such errors, could result in patient injury or death, discontinuance or delay of ongoing or planned clinical trials, delays or failures in product testing or delivery or regulatory approval, cost overruns, product recalls or withdrawals and other problems that could seriously hurt our business. Contract drug manufacturers often encounter difficulties involving production yields, quality control and quality assurance and shortages of qualified personnel. These manufacturers are subject to stringent regulatory requirements, including cGMPs, regulations and similar foreign laws and standards. Each contract manufacturer must pass a pre-approval inspection before we can obtain marketing approval for any of our drug candidates and following approval will be subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and other regulatory agencies, to ensure strict compliance with cGMPs and other applicable government regulations and corresponding foreign laws and standards. We seek to ensure that we and our contract manufacturers comply fully with all applicable regulations, laws and standards. However, we do not have control over our contract manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations, laws and standards. If one of our contract manufacturers fails to pass its pre-approval inspection or maintain ongoing compliance at any time, the production of our drug candidates could be interrupted, resulting in delays or discontinuance of our clinical trials, additional costs and potentially lost revenues from delays or refusals of regulatory approvals for our drug candidates. In addition, failure of any third-party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations, including pre- or post-approval inspections and the cGMP requirements of the FDA or other comparable regulatory agencies, could result in sanctions being imposed on us. These sanctions could include fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of our products, delay, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, product seizures or recalls, operational restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business.

If we or our partners receive regulatory approval for our drug candidates, we or they will be subject to ongoing obligations to and continued regulatory review by the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies, and may be subject to additional post-marketing obligations such as an ETASU or other form of REMS, all of which may result in significant expense and limit commercialization of our potential drugs.

Our clinical-stage drug candidates are: (i) aficamten, a next-in-class cardiac myosin inhibitor, (ii) omecamtiv mecarbil, a novel cardiac myosin activator, (iii) CK-586, an additional cardiac myosin inhibitor, and (iv) CK-089, a novel fast skeletal troponin activator.

For further information regarding our business, refer to Part I, Item 1 (Business) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Net cash used in investing activities of $553.1 million for 2024 was primarily due to purchases of investments offset by maturities of investments.

Net cash provided by financing activities of $221.3 million in 2023 was due to proceeds from public offerings of common stock of $164.2 million under the Controlled Equity Offering Sales Agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co discussed below and $50.0 million of additional consideration associated with the 2022 RP Aficamten Royalty Purchase Agreement which was paid to us in September 2023 and stock-based award activities.

Under the RP Multi Tranche Loan Agreement, we have drawn $100 million and an additional $350 million remains available to us for disbursement as long-term debt, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions. Of these available loans, we have satisfied the conditions to draw on the tranche 4 loan in the amount of $75 million upon receipt of positive results from SEQUOIA-HCM and tranche 5 in the amount of $100 million upon acceptance of the filing of our NDA for aficamten. We are obliged to draw at least $50 million of either the tranche 4 or tranche 5 facility by November 24, 2025. The remaining $175 million tranche 7 loan is subject to conditions related to the approval of our NDA for aficamten in patients with oHCM on or prior to December 31, 2025. We expect to draw all available loans under the RP Multi Tranche Loan Agreement unless we are able to meet our financing requirements through more favorable funding sources. If, for any reason, we are unable to satisfy the conditions for disbursement of the remaining $175 million in available loans under the RP Multi Tranche Loan Agreement, we would need to seek alternative debt or equity financing.

For collaborative agreements that have a performance obligation where the counterparty is a customer for the unit of account, we apply ASC 606, Revenue Recognition, to the unit of account and the revenue is classified as License and milestone revenue in our consolidated statement of operations. For other transactions in collaborative arrangements, consisting of research and development cost reimbursements, we recognize the research and development cost reimbursements as collaboration revenues in our consolidated statement of operations.

We expect that general and administrative expenses will significantly increase in 2025. We have submitted an NDA to FDA for aficamten for the treatment of oHCM, which was accepted for filing with a PDUFA target action date of September 26, 2025. Accordingly, we will be incurring expenses for the purpose of commercial readiness activities, including, but not limited to, the hiring and training of a field sales force, the implementation of compliance systems and sales and marketing expenses. In addition, we submitted an MAA to EMA for aficamten for the treatment of oHCM in the fourth quarter of 2024, which was validated by EMA, and therefore, we will be incurring similar expenses for commercial readiness activities in Europe but with additional expenses for the establishment of a corporate infrastructure to enable commercialization activities in key European markets. A significant portion of these anticipated commercial readiness expenses in the United States and Europe are not expenses that have been reflected in our financial statements for previous periods.

the time, costs and outcomes of regulatory reviews or other regulatory actions related to our drug candidates, including with respect to our NDA submission for aficamten for the treatment of oHCM to FDA and our related MAA submission to EMA;

License and milestone revenues recognized in 2024 were attributable to a $15.0 million non-refundable upfront payment from Corxel in the fourth quarter of 2024 in connection with a modification of the original license prior to the assignment of Corxel’s rights under our license and collaboration agreement for the development and commercialization of aficamten in China and Taiwan to Sanofi. The $15.0 million is reflected as a receivable at December 31, 2024. License and milestone revenues for 2023 consisted of a milestone recognized from Corxel for the initiation of our Phase 3 clinical trial of aficamten in nHCM.

Collaboration revenues in 2024 were primarily from Corxel under our collaboration and license agreement with Corxel (now assigned to Genzyme Corporation, an affiliate of Sanofi). As of December 31, 2024 receivables of $1.5 million were recorded related to Corxel. In 2023, Collaboration revenues were primarily from Astellas for reimbursements under the Astellas FSRA Agreement. Under the Astellas FSRA Agreement, Astellas agreed to pay one-third of the out-of-pocket clinical development costs which was incurred in connection with the Company’s Phase 3 clinical trial of reldesemtiv in ALS, up to a maximum contribution by Astellas of $12 million. On March 31, 2023, we announced that we would be discontinuing COURAGE-ALS, our Phase 3 clinical trial of reldesemtiv in patients with ALS, and COURAGE-ALS OLE. As of December 31, 2023 we billed and collected the maximum contribution of $12.0 million from Astellas, and no further revenue is expected under this arrangement.

In evaluating our business, you should carefully consider the following risks in addition to the other information in this report. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows, reputation or your investment in our securities, and many are beyond our control. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently see as immaterial, may also adversely affect our business. The disclosures in this section reflect our beliefs and opinions as to factors that could materially and adversely affect us in the future. References to past events are provided by way of example only and are not intended to be a complete listing or a representation as to whether or not such factors have occurred in the past. The information discussed below should be considered carefully with the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the other documents and materials we file with the SEC, as well as news releases and other information we publicly disseminate from time to time.

Risks Specific to our Company in connection with our Commercial Operations

If physicians and patients do not accept our drugs, we may be unable to generate significant revenue, if any.

MYQORZO may not gain market acceptance among physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, and our other drug candidates, if approved, may similarly fail to gain market acceptance. Even if the clinical safety and efficacy of drugs developed from our drug candidates are established for purposes of approval, physicians may elect not to recommend these drugs for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to the availability of competitive drugs to the market, cost-effectiveness, availability of insurance coverage and reimbursement, convenience and ease of administration, prevalence and severity of adverse events, HCP practice patterns and familiarity with earlier to market therapies.

The size of the potential market for MYQORZO or our product candidates is difficult to estimate and, if any of our assumptions are inaccurate, the actual markets for our products or product candidates may be smaller than our estimates. If the market opportunities for any products or product candidates we develop are smaller than we believe they are, or if any approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our potential revenues may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.

Our potential market opportunity for oHCM, nHCM, and other indications is based on internal and third-party estimates and resources, including, without limitation, our estimates and research, as well as industry and general publications and research, surveys and studies conducted by Cytokinetics and third parties, which may be incorrect. Our estimated potential market opportunity for cardiac myosin inhibitors in oHCM and nHCM is based on the following assumptions: our understanding of the prevalence of HCM in the general population from published epidemiological studies and analysis of longitudinal claims data, the percentage split of diagnosed oHCM and nHCM patients derived from publications, market research and patient transaction databases, the percentage of available symptomatic patients not adequately managed by the current standard of care among diagnosed HCM patients, rates of patient compliance and persistence, based on patient transaction database and/or third-party market research. The conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates and the market data supporting these assumptions and estimates may change at any time or otherwise be inaccurate, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors.

Our total addressable market will ultimately depend upon, among other things, the willingness of patients and HCPs to utilize MYQORZO compared to other cardiac sarcomere inhibitors or other therapies, the number of actual treatable symptomatic patients on MYQORZO and other cardiac myosin inhibitors or other therapies over time, the subset of eligible HCM patients who may utilize MYQORZO, acceptance and accessibility of our drug products by the medical community and patients, market share, drug pricing and reimbursement across payer types (i.e., Medicare, commercial, Medicaid, etc.). The number of patients within the United States and other major markets and elsewhere may turn out to be materially lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our drugs or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would harm our results of operations and our business. If our conclusions, analysis or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our total addressable market may be meaningfully smaller than we have estimated, our future growth opportunities and sales growth may be impaired, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our competitors may develop drugs that are less expensive, safer and/or have similar or better efficacy than ours, which may diminish or eliminate the commercial success of any drugs that we may commercialize.

We compete with companies that have developed drugs or are developing drug candidates for cardiovascular diseases, diseases and conditions associated with muscle weakness or wasting and other diseases for which our drug candidates may be useful treatments. We also compete for market share against large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and smaller companies that are collaborating with larger pharmaceutical companies, new companies, academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations. Many of these competitors, either alone or together with their partners, develop new drug candidates that can compete with ours. Many of these competitors have larger research and development programs or substantially greater financial resources than we do. If our competitors market drugs that are less expensive, safer and/or have similar or better efficacy than MYQORZO, or any other drugs that we may commercialize in the future, or that reach the market sooner than MYQORZO, or any other drugs that we may commercialize in the future, we may not achieve commercial success.

The commercial success of our products depends on the availability and sufficiency of third‑party payor and/or government for coverage and reimbursement.

Patients in the United States and elsewhere generally rely on third‑party payors and/or governments to reimburse part or all of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. Accordingly, market acceptance of our products is dependent on the extent to which third‑party coverage and reimbursement is available from government health administration authorities (including in connection with government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid in the United States), private healthcare insurers and other healthcare funding organizations. Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval. Even if we obtain coverage for a given drug product, the timeframe from approval to coverage could be lengthy, inadequate, and/or the associated reimbursement rate may not be adequate to cover our costs, including research, development, intellectual property, manufacture, sale and distribution expenses, or may require co‑payments that patients find unacceptably high.

We historically have had limited interactions and relationships with payors. Our ability to engage with US payors and secure coverage may improve as we commercialize MYQORZO and generate additional clinical and real-world evidence. Over time, we anticipate our drugs will be adopted by our patients as indicated by their labels. To achieve this adoption, our drugs will need to be widely reimbursed via medical exception or listed in formularies of major pharmacy benefit managers and payors in the U.S. These major pharmacy benefit managers and payors include Medicare, Medicaid, VA, DoD, TriCare, and commercial payors. The process to achieve coverage with pharmacy benefit managers and payors can be time consuming, is not guaranteed and if achieved can impact profitability given the level of rebates often required.

Coverage and reimbursement policies for drug products can differ significantly from payor to payor as there is no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug products among third‑party payors in the United States. There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement as the process of determining coverage and reimbursement is often time‑consuming and costly which will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage or adequate reimbursement will be obtained. It is difficult to predict at this time what third parties will decide with respect to coverage and reimbursement for our products. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable to no coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.

In addition, there is significant uncertainty regarding the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare products. We may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products. If third-party payors do not consider our products to be cost-effective compared to other therapies, the payors may not cover our products as a benefit under their plans, or if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a profitable basis.

Additionally, to the extent required by regulatory authorities for the safe and effective use of any of our drug products, we or our partners may develop companion diagnostic tests for use with our products or product candidates such as with omecamtiv mecarbil. Companion diagnostic tests require coverage and reimbursement separate and apart from the coverage and reimbursement for their companion pharmaceutical or biological products. Similar challenges to obtaining coverage and reimbursement, applicable to pharmaceutical products, will apply to companion diagnostics and could adversely impact the commercial prospects of omecamtiv mecarbil or any other drug we may develop that requires a companion diagnostic test.

If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient third‑party coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products, the commercial success of MYQORZO, as well as any future marketed drug products may be greatly hindered and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We have no manufacturing capabilities and depend on single source contract manufacturers to produce our commercial product and clinical trial materials, including our drug candidates, and will have continued reliance on contract manufacturers for the development and commercialization of our potential drugs.

We do not operate manufacturing facilities for clinical or commercial production of our drugs and drug candidates. We lack the resources and the capabilities to manufacture any of our drug candidates on a clinical or commercial scale.

In addition, under our license and collaboration agreements, we have committed to providing Sanofi and Bayer with supply of aficamten for development and commercialization of MYQORZO in China, Taiwan and Japan, which we will have to source from our contract manufacturers.

We currently rely on single source CMOs for the manufacture of any or all of MYQORZO as a finished drug product and the active pharmaceutical ingredient and registered starting materials used in the production of MYQORZO. We also rely on a single source CMO for the packaging of MYQORZO in blister packaging for use in Europe. If these CMOs fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of product or fail to comply with manufacturing regulations, our business could be harmed. Switching CMOs or manufacturing sites would be difficult and time-consuming because the number of potential CMOs is limited. In addition, before a drug from any replacement CMO or manufacturing site can be commercialized, the FDA and, in some cases, foreign regulatory agencies, must approve that site. These approvals would require regulatory testing and compliance inspections. A new CMO or manufacturing site also would have to be educated in, or develop substantially equivalent processes for, production of our drugs and drug candidates. It may be difficult or impossible to transfer certain elements of a manufacturing process to a new CMO or for us to find a replacement CMO on acceptable terms quickly, or at all, either of which would delay or prevent our ability to develop drug candidates and commercialize any resulting drugs.

We also expect to rely on single source CMOs to supply all future drugs and drug candidates for which we conduct development, as well as other materials required to conduct our clinical trials, and to fulfil our obligations under our license and collaboration agreements. If our existing or future CMOs fail to, or are unable to perform satisfactorily or if any of the raw materials, drug substance, or drug products are subject to restrictive import/export controls or tariffs, it could impede commercialization or delay development or regulatory approval of our drug candidates or commercialization of our drugs, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenues, and also lead to our breach of one of our license and collaboration agreements, giving rise to the ability to terminate such agreements and other adverse consequences as stipulated in such agreements. In addition, if a CMO fails to, or is unable to, perform as agreed, our ability to collect damages may be contractually limited.

Finally, the United States and other countries have imposed and may continue to impose new trade restrictions and export regulations, have levied tariffs and taxes on certain goods, including the potential for tariffs applicable to pharmaceutical products and their inputs. In September 2025, the United States administration announced plans to impose up to 100% tariffs on imported branded or patented pharmaceutical products, subject to certain exceptions, and in April 2026, the United States administration issued a Proclamation regarding the imposition of such tariffs (the Pharmaceutical Tariffs). There remains substantial uncertainty as to the implementation and potential impact of such tariffs and, more generally, about the duration of existing tariffs and whether additional tariffs or other retaliatory measures may be imposed, modified or suspended. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that certain tariffs imposed by the U.S. federal government under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act exceeded presidential authority and therefore are invalid. However, tariffs imposed under different statutes (including the Pharmaceutical Tariffs) were not directly impacted by the decision and therefore remain in place. If additional tariffs, trade restrictions or other barriers are imposed or expanded, our costs for raw materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, finished drug product or other inputs could increase materially, and our supply chain could be disrupted, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to successfully manufacture our drugs or drug candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, which would delay or prevent us from developing our drug candidates and commercializing approved drug products.

Prior to the recent approval of MYQORZO in December 2025, our drug candidates had been manufactured in quantities adequate only for preclinical studies and early through late-stage clinical trials. In order to conduct large scale clinical trials for a drug candidate and for commercialization of the resulting drug if that drug candidate is approved for sale, such as for MYQORZO, we need to manufacture drugs in larger quantities and validate the repeatability of those manufacturing processes. We may not be able to successfully repeat or increase the manufacturing capacity for any of our drugs or drug candidates, in a timely or cost-effective manner or at all. Significant changes or scale-up of manufacturing may require additional validation studies, which are costly and which regulatory authorities must review and approve. In addition, quality issues may arise during those changes or scale-up activities because of the inherent properties of a drug or drug candidate itself or of a drug or drug candidate in combination with other components added during the manufacturing and packaging process, or during shipping and storage of the finished product or active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Our drug candidates and commercialized drugs, such as MYQORZO, require precise high-quality manufacturing. The failure to achieve and maintain high manufacturing standards in compliance with cGMP, including failure to document and detect, control, analyze and resolve anticipated or unanticipated manufacturing errors or the frequent occurrence of such errors, could result in patient injury or death, discontinuance or delay of ongoing or planned clinical trials, delays or failures in product testing or delivery or regulatory approval, cost overruns, product recalls or withdrawals and other problems that could seriously hurt our business. Contract drug manufacturers often encounter difficulties involving production yields, quality control and quality assurance and shortages of qualified personnel. These manufacturers are subject to stringent regulatory requirements, including cGMPs, regulations and similar foreign laws and standards. Each contract manufacturer must pass a pre-approval inspection before we can obtain marketing approval for any of our drug candidates and following approval will be subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and other regulatory agencies, to ensure strict compliance with cGMPs and other applicable government regulations and corresponding foreign laws and standards. We seek, and require our contract manufacturers, to comply fully with all applicable regulations, laws and standards. However, we do not have control over our contract manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations, laws and standards. If one of our contract manufacturers fails to pass its pre-approval inspection or maintain ongoing compliance at any time, the production of our drugs or drug candidates could be interrupted, negatively impacting commercialization efforts for our approved drug products or resulting in delays or discontinuance of our clinical trials or refusal of regulatory approval for our drug candidates, leading to additional costs and potentially lost revenues. In addition, failure of any third-party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations, including pre- or post-approval inspections and the cGMP requirements of the FDA or other comparable regulatory agencies, could result in sanctions being imposed on us. These sanctions could include fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of our products, delay, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, product seizures or recalls, operational restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business.

Approved drug products remain subject to ongoing obligations, including continued regulatory review by the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies and REMS, all of which may result in significant expense and limit commercialization efforts of our drugs.

Any regulatory approvals that we or our partners obtain for our drugs or drug candidates are subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the drug may be marketed or require potentially costly post-marketing follow-up studies or compliance with a REMS program that includes ETASU. For example, MYQORZO is subject to a comprehensive REMS program that includes, among other things, restrictions and qualifications on pharmacies that dispense the drug and certification, record-keeping, ongoing monitoring and patient counseling obligations on physicians who prescribe the drug. In addition, in connection with the approval of MYQORZO the FDA requires the conduct of the following post-marketing studies: (i) a worldwide descriptive study that collects prospective and retrospective data in women exposed to MYQORZO during pregnancy to assess risks of pregnancy and maternal complications, and adverse effects on the developing fetus, the neonate, and the infant, as well as to assess infant outcomes through at least the first year of life and (ii) a milk-only lactation study in lactating women who have received MYQORZO to measure concentrations of MYQORZO in breast milk using a validated assay, as well as to assess the effects on the breast-fed infant, if available, based on study population.

In addition, the labeling, packaging, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and record-keeping for approved drugs remain subject to extensive regulatory requirements. The subsequent discovery of previously unknown problems with a drug, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or the discovery that adverse events or toxicities observed in preclinical research or clinical trials that were believed to be minor constitute much more serious problems, may result in restrictions on the marketing of the drug or withdrawal of the drug from the market.

If the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities approve generic versions of MYQORZO, or any other potential products that receive marketing approval, or such authorities do not grant MYQORZO appropriate periods of data or market exclusivity before approving a generic version, sales of MYQORZO could be adversely affected.

Once an NDA is approved, the drug covered thereby becomes a “reference-listed drug” in the FDA’s publication, “Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations.” Manufacturers may seek marketing approval of generic versions of reference-listed drugs through submission of Abbreviated New Drug Applications (“ANDAs”) in the United States. Generic drugs may be significantly less costly to bring to market than the reference-listed drug and companies that produce generic drugs are generally able to offer them at lower prices. Thus, following the introduction of a generic drug, a significant percentage of the sales of any branded product or reference-listed drug is typically lost to the generic drug.

The FDA may not approve an ANDA or a 505(b)(2) NDA for a generic drug until any applicable period of non-patent exclusivity for the reference-listed drug has expired. The FDCA provides a period of five years of non-patent exclusivity for a new drug containing a new chemical entity. During the exclusivity period, the FDA may not accept for review an ANDA or a 505(b)(2) NDA submitted by another company for another version of such product candidate where the applicant does not own or have a legal right of reference to all the data required for approval. However, an application may be submitted after four years if it contains a certification of patent invalidity or non-infringement. The FDCA also provides three years of marketing exclusivity for an NDA, 505(b)(2) NDA or supplement to an approved NDA if new clinical investigations, other than bioavailability studies, that were conducted or sponsored by the applicant are deemed by the FDA to be essential to the approval of the application, for example, for new indications, dosages or strengths of an existing product candidate. This three-year exclusivity covers only the conditions associated with the new clinical investigations and does not prohibit the FDA from approving ANDAs for product candidates containing the original active agent for other conditions of use. Five-year and three-year exclusivity will not delay the submission or approval of a full NDA. However, an applicant submitting a full NDA would be required to conduct or obtain a right of reference to all of the nonclinical studies and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials necessary to demonstrate safety and effectiveness. Manufacturers may seek to launch generic drugs following the expiration of the marketing exclusivity period, even if we still have patent protection for such drugs.

Competition that MYQORZO, or any other potential product candidates, may face from generic drugs could materially and adversely impact our future revenue, profitability and cash flows and substantially limit our ability to obtain a return on the investments we have made in those products. Our future revenues, profitability and cash flows could also be materially and adversely affected and our ability to obtain a return on the investments we have made in MYQORZO or other product candidates may be substantially limited if MYQORZO, or any other potential products, product candidates, are not afforded the appropriate periods of non-patent exclusivity.

Risks Specific to our Company in connection with our Research and Development Activities

The regulatory approval and marketing authorization process is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain and may prevent our partners or us from obtaining approvals to commercialize some or all of our drug candidates.

The research, testing, manufacturing, selling and marketing of drugs are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries. Neither we nor our partners are permitted to market our potential drugs in the United States until we receive approval of an NDA from the FDA. Obtaining NDA approval is a lengthy, expensive and uncertain process. The FDA and foreign regulatory agencies can delay, limit or deny approval of a drug candidate for many reasons, including, but not limited to, a determination that a drug candidate is not safe or effective, that the data from non-clinical testing and clinical trials is insufficient and that our partner’s or the contract manufacturer’s processes or facilities are not in compliance with GMP. Even if we receive regulatory approval to manufacture and sell a drug in a particular regulatory jurisdiction, other jurisdictions’ regulatory authorities may not approve that drug for manufacture and sale.

Regulatory approval of an NDA, NDA supplement or other marketing application for our drug candidates is never guaranteed. For example, our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil for the treatment of HFrEF resulted in a complete response letter notwithstanding the fact that GALACTIC-HF met its primary efficacy endpoint. As our previously filed NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil illustrates, while we may submit marketing authorization applications for our drug candidates in the future, such applications may not lead to any regulatory approvals, or may result in requirements to conduct additional clinical trials prior to any potential approvals, which would increase our development costs and delay or preclude any revenue from commercial sales of our drug candidates.

Disruptions at the FDA, including due to a reduction in the FDA’s workforce and/or inadequate funding for the FDA, could prevent the FDA from performing normal functions on which our business relies, which could negatively impact our business.

The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products or review other regulatory submissions can be affected by a variety of factors, including statutory, regulatory and policy changes, inadequate government budget and funding levels, a reduction in the FDA’s workforce and its ability to hire and retain key personnel. Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also increase the time to meet with and receive agency feedback, review and/or approve our submissions, conduct inspections, issue regulatory guidance, or take other actions that facilitate the development, approval and marketing of regulated products, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, have had to furlough critical employees and stop critical activities. Most recently, during the U.S. government shut down in October 2025, the FDA was not able to accept applications for new drugs, generics, biologics, biosimilars or medical devices that require payment of a user fee. In addition, government proposals to reduce or eliminate budgetary deficits may include reduced allocations to the FDA and other related government agencies. For example, the current United States administration established the now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency, which implemented a federal government hiring freeze and announced certain additional efforts to reduce federal government employee headcount, including by eliminating 3,500 employees from the FDA, and the size of the federal government. The reductions in the FDA’s workforce and budgetary pressures could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions or take other actions critical to the marketing of any of our product candidates that are ultimately approved. Any delay in the acceptance, review or approval of our investigational new drug applications, clinical trial applications, marketing applications, facility inspections or lot-release/testing activities could delay or increase the cost of our clinical trials, manufacturing scale-up, product launches or post-approval changes, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Clinical trials could fail to demonstrate the desired safety and efficacy of our drug candidates, which could prevent or significantly delay completion of clinical development and regulatory approval.

Prior to receiving approval to commercialize any of our drug candidates, we or our partners must adequately demonstrate to the satisfaction of FDA and foreign regulatory authorities that the drug candidate is sufficiently safe and effective with substantial evidence from well-controlled clinical trials. We or our partners must demonstrate efficacy in clinical trials for the treatment of specific indications and monitor safety throughout the clinical development process and following approval. Although our NDA for MYQORZO was approved in December 2025, we have failed in the past to meet the burdens for efficacy and safety required by FDA and other regulatory authorities. For example, the CRL we received in February 2023 in connection with our NDA for omecamtiv mecarbil stated that the results of GALACTIC-HF were not sufficiently persuasive to establish substantial evidence of effectiveness for reducing the risk of heart failure events and cardiovascular death in adults with chronic heart failure with HFrEF, and in March 2023, we announced the discontinuation of COURAGE-ALS, our Phase 3 clinical trial of reldesemtiv in patients with ALS, due to futility. If we fail to demonstrate that our drugs are safe and efficacious, we may incur additional development costs and be precluded from realizing commercial sales for our drug candidates.

Although we have announced positive topline results from ACACIA-HCM, our Phase 3 clinical trial of aficamten in patients with nHCM, the regulatory pathway for approval of aficamten for the treatment of nHCM depends on the totality of clinical data and regulatory agencies’ interpretations of what constitutes a minimally important clinical difference in the trial's functional endpoints, which can be subjective because there is no universally established standard. FDA, EMA and/or other regulatory agencies may determine that the results from ACACIA-HCM do not demonstrate either a magnitude of functional benefit that regulators deem satisfactory for approval or a magnitude of functional benefit that physicians deem sufficient to prescribe MYQORZO for their patients. In such cases, regulatory agencies may not approve the nHCM indication or may delay such approval, or physicians may not prescribe MYQORZO for their patients, respectively.

Our failure to demonstrate that our drugs are safe and efficacious can result in additional development costs and preclude us from realizing commercial sales for our drug candidates.

If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in clinical trials for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the existence of approved therapies and the concurrent enrollment of clinical trials for competing therapies. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including: the patient eligibility criteria defined in the protocol; the size of the patient population required for analysis of the trial’s primary endpoints; the proximity of patients to study sites; the design of the trial; the ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience; clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies or clinical trials being conducted by our competitors; the ability to obtain and maintain patient consents; the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will drop out of the trials before completion. Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our and our partners’ ability to advance the development of product candidates.

The failure to successfully develop, manufacture and obtain regulatory clearance or approval of an immunoassay or companion diagnostics, if required by FDA as a condition to approval of our drugs, could harm our development and commercialization strategy for such drugs in key markets.

In connection with the anticipation of filing of a new NDA and MAA for omecamtiv mecarbil at the conclusion of COMET-HF, FDA and/or EMA may require that patients treated with omecamtiv mecarbil have their blood monitored during titration for concentrations of the drug in order to determine optimized dosing that maximizes benefits without undue risk. We have contracted with Microgenics Corporation, a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher, to develop and eventually commercialize an antibody-based immunoassay for blood concentrations of omecamtiv mecarbil. The development, manufacture and regulatory approval of an antibody-based immunoassay, however, can be complex and/or time consuming. Such an immunoassay could require regulatory clearance by FDA as a companion diagnostic device or similar regulatory clearance by EMA, and there is no assurance that such regulatory clearance will be obtained. In addition, if required by FDA and/or EMA as part of any approved label for omecamtiv mecarbil, we will be dependent on Microgenics Corporation to successfully manufacture and commercialize its immunoassay in sufficient quantities in all key markets in which we may seek to commercialize omecamtiv mecarbil, failing which, our potential sales of omecamtiv mecarbil could be materially adversely affected.

We depend on CROs to conduct our clinical trials and we have limited control over their performance. If these CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, or if we lose any of our CROs, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, if at all.

We have used and intend to continue to use a limited number of CROs within and outside of the United States to conduct clinical trials of our drug candidates and related activities. We do not have control over many aspects of our CROs’ activities, and cannot fully control the amount, timing or quality of resources that they devote to our programs. CROs may not assign as high a priority to our programs or pursue them as diligently as we would if we were undertaking these programs ourselves. The activities conducted by our CROs therefore may not be completed on schedule or in a satisfactory manner. CROs may also give higher priority to relationships with our competitors and potential competitors than to their relationships with us. Outside of the United States, we are particularly dependent on our CROs’ expertise in communicating with clinical trial sites and regulatory authorities and ensuring that our clinical trials and related activities and regulatory filings comply with applicable laws.

Although we rely, and will continue to rely, on these third parties to conduct our clinical trials, we remain responsible for our studies and clinical trials being conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards and our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We, and these third parties are required to comply with cGCPs for clinical studies. cGCPs are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA, EMA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for all of our products in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce cGCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of our third-party contractors fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including cGCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and FDA, EMA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. There can be no assurance that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with cGCP regulations. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which could add additional costs and could delay the regulatory approval process.

Risks Specific to our Company in connection with our Intellectual Property

Our success depends substantially upon our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection relating to our drug candidates, compounds and research technologies.

We own, co-own or hold exclusive licenses to a number of U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications directed to our drug candidates, compounds and research technologies. Our success depends on our ability to obtain patent protection both in the United States and in other countries for our drug candidates, their methods of manufacture and use, and our technologies. Our ability to protect our drugs and drug candidates, and compounds and technologies from unauthorized or infringing use by third parties depends substantially on our ability to obtain and enforce our patents. If our issued patents and patent applications, if granted, do not adequately describe, enable or otherwise provide coverage for our technologies and drugs and drug candidates, we, our licensors or our licensees would not be able to exclude others from developing or commercializing these drugs or drug candidates. Furthermore, the degree of future protection of our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient intellectual property protection for our technologies and drugs or drug candidates, or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize drugs similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize product candidates that we may pursue may be impaired.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world. Patent protection is afforded on a country-by-country basis. In addition, our patents in foreign jurisdictions may be subject to opposition proceedings that challenge the validity of our patents. For example, our composition of matter and a crystalline form patent for aficamten are subject to oppositions in the EU. If we were to lose these proceedings and suffer patent invalidity, our commercial prospects for aficamten in the EU may, absent the continued effectiveness of our other patents in the EU, including our composition of matter patent in the EU, be adversely affected. Moreover, we may not seek patent protection in all jurisdictions throughout the world. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our products or product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. Many companies have encountered significant difficulties in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. In addition, the legal protection afforded to inventors and owners of intellectual property in countries outside of the United States may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as in the United States. Therefore, we may be unable to acquire and protect intellectual property developed by these contractors to the same extent as if these development activities were being conducted in the United States. If we encounter difficulties in protecting our intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions, our business prospects could be substantially harmed.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our technologies, drugs and drug candidates for an adequate amount of time. Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our technologies, drugs and drug candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products, including generics. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new drugs and drug candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such drugs or drug candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned, co-owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours or our partners.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, the value of our technology could be materially adversely affected and our business would be harmed, and we may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed trade secrets of their former employers.

We rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, particularly where we believe patent protection is not appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are often difficult to protect, especially outside of the United States. While we endeavor to use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our or our partners’ employees, consultants, contractors or scientific and other advisors may unintentionally or willfully disclose our information to competitors. In addition, confidentiality agreements, if any, executed by those individuals may not be enforceable or provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure. We cannot be certain that such agreements have been entered into with all relevant parties, and we cannot be certain that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Pursuing a claim that a third party had illegally obtained and was using our trade secrets would be expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome would be unpredictable. Even if we are able to maintain our trade secrets as confidential, if our competitors lawfully obtain or independently develop information equivalent or similar to our trade secrets, our business could be harmed.

Additionally, many of our employees were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although no legal proceedings against us are currently pending, we may be subject to claims that these employees or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending these claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key research personnel or their work product could hamper or prevent our ability to develop and commercialize certain potential drugs, which could significantly harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and distract management.

Infringement lawsuits are costly and time-consuming, and an unfavorable outcome could have a significant adverse effect on our business, including our ability to market MYQORZO to the fullest extent permissible within regulatory approvals.

Our ability to commercialize drugs depends on our ability to use, manufacture and sell those drugs without infringing the patents or other proprietary rights of third parties. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist in the therapeutic areas in which we are developing drug candidates or seeking new potential drug candidates, while others may exist that claim methods of use of our existing drugs. For example, we are aware that an Issue Notification for US Patent No. 12,616,697 has been sent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the patent holder, Myokardia, Inc., a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb. The patent, with expected issuance on May 5, 2026, claims the method of treating patients with HCM or HFpEF who are already undergoing beta blocker therapy, the method comprising discontinuation or reduction of beta blocker therapy and the administration of a therapeutically effective amount of a myosin inhibitor (including MYQORZO). Upon issuance, the patent holder may assert that its patent claims cover certain aspects of using MYQORZO for treating patients with HCM who are then currently on beta blocker therapy. Such claims could result in patent litigation, injunctive relief and/or damages, if we are found to be infringing.

The FDA granted aficamten orphan drug designation for the treatment of symptomatic HCM in 2021.

Aficamten was also evaluated in MAPLE-HCM, a Phase 3 randomized, double blind, active-comparator clinical trial of aficamten as monotherapy compared to metoprolol as a monotherapy in patients with obstructive HCM. In May 2025, the company announced positive topline results from MAPLE-HCM and in August 2025 the company presented the primary results of MAPLE-HCM at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2025. The primary endpoint in MAPLE-HCM was the mean change from baseline in pVO2 for aficamten compared to metoprolol after 24 weeks of treatment. MAPLE-HCM met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in peak oxygen uptake (pVO2) from baseline to Week 24 for aficamten compared to metoprolol. For aficamten, the mean change in pVO2 from baseline to Week 24 was +1.1 mL/kg/min (95% CI 0.5 to 1.7) and for metoprolol was - 1.2 mL/kg/min (95% CI -1.7 to -0.8). The primary endpoint was statistically significant with a least-squares mean (LSM) difference between groups of 2.3 mL/kg/min (95% CI 1.5 to 3.1; p<0.0001). Overall, the rate of adverse events was similar between groups. At least one treatment-emergent adverse event was reported by 65 (73.9%) and 66 (75.9%) patients treated with aficamten and metoprolol, respectively. One patient receiving aficamten, a 69-year-old woman with multiple co-morbidities, developed a viral illness and subsequently died. Three patients receiving metoprolol terminated treatment due to adverse events. The most common AE reported in excess (>5%) of the comparator was hypertension for aficamten (9 [10.2%] patients compared to 2 [2.3%] patients on metoprolol).

Collaboration for Commercialization of Aficamten in Greater China

We are party to a license and collaboration agreement, pursuant to which we granted to Corxel an exclusive license to develop and commercialize drug products containing aficamten in China and Taiwan. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Genzyme Corporation, an affiliate of Sanofi, acquired Corxel's rights to develop and commercialize drug products containing aficamten in China and Taiwan.

The China NMPA approved MYQORZO (aficamten) for the treatment of adults with (NYHA class II-III) oHCM, to improve exercise capacity and symptoms.

Collaboration for Commercialization of Aficamten in Japan

We are party to a collaboration and license agreement with Bayer Consumer Care AG, an affiliate of Bayer AG, for the exclusive development and commercialization of drug products containing aficamten in Japan, subject to certain reserved development rights of Cytokinetics to conduct ACACIA-HCM and CEDAR-HCM in Japan.

The first patient in Japan was dosed in the Japanese cohort of ACACIA-HCM in the second quarter of 2025. The first patient was dosed in Bayer’s Phase 3 clinical trial in oHCM, CAMELLIA-HCM, in Japan in the third quarter of 2025.

Aficamten was recently granted Orphan Drug Designation by the Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for patients with nHCM and pediatric patients with oHCM.

Royalty Pharma Revenue Interest

We are party to a revenue interest agreement with RPI ICAV, the RP Aficamten RPA, pursuant to which RPI ICAV purchased rights to certain revenue streams from net sales of MYQORZO and any other future potential pharmaceutical products containing aficamten by us, our affiliates and our licensees. Pursuant to the terms of the RP Aficamten RPA, as amended, RPI ICAV is entitled to receive 4.5% of our worldwide annual net sales of MYQORZO and any other future potential products containing aficamten up to $5.0 billion and 1% of our annual net sales above $5.0 billion.

COMET-HF Informed by Results from Patient Subgroup in GALACTIC-HF

Royalty Pharma Revenue Interest

In 2017, we entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement, which we refer to as the RP OM RPA, with Royalty Pharma Development Funding, LLC, or RPFT, and amended the RP OM RPA on January 7, 2022. Pursuant to the RP OM RPA, as amended, RPFT has a revenue interest entitling it to up to 5.5% of our affiliates’ and licensees’ worldwide net sales of drug products containing omecamtiv mecarbil.

In the second quarter of 2024, we entered into the RP OM Loan Agreement with RPDF. Pursuant to the RP OM Loan Agreement, RDPF has a revenue interest entitling it to quarterly payments in an amount equal to 2.0% of the annual worldwide net sales of drug products containing omecamtiv mecarbil, subject to a minimum floor amount ranging from $5.0 million to $8.0 million during the first 18 calendar quarters commencing on the calendar quarter during which FDA approval for any drug product containing omecamtiv mecarbil is obtained, as further described in Note 3 to our condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the section "Agreements with Royalty Pharma," on the condition that a new Phase 3 clinical trial of omecamtiv mecarbil is successful by June 30, 2028 and we receive the marketing approval from the FDA for omecamtiv mecarbil on or prior to December 31, 2029.

In preclinical models, ulacamten reduced cardiac hypercontractility by decreasing the number of active myosin cross-bridges during cardiac contraction thereby reducing the contractile force, without effect on calcium transients. Ulacamten selectively inhibits the ATPase of intact cardiac myosin but does not inhibit the ATPase of subfragment-1 of myosin (S1) as does aficamten, a cardiac myosin inhibitor we have also developed. Unlike aficamten, the inhibitory effect of ulacamten requires the presence of the regulatory light chain (RLC) of myosin in the context of the intact myosin dimer (heavy meromyosin or HMM). In engineered human HCM heart tissues, ulacamten demonstrated a shallow force-concentration response and improved lusitropy. Lending support for investigating this mechanism of action in HFpEF, a subset of patients with HFpEF resemble patients with non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in that those patients have higher ejection fractions, thickened walls of their heart, elevated biomarkers, and symptoms of heart failure. Data from a Phase 2 clinical trial of aficamten in patients with nHCM and the results of ACACIA-HCM show that aficamten was well tolerated, improved patient reported outcomes (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) and New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Class) and biomarkers, measures that are also relevant to HFpEF.

Phase 1 Trial Results

We conducted a Phase 1 double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-part single and multiple ascending dose clinical study with the goal of evaluating the safety, tolerability and PK of ulacamten when administered orally as single or multiple doses to healthy participants. The primary objective of this clinical study was to evaluate the safety, tolerability and PK of ulacamten when administered orally to healthy participants. The study design included seven single ascending dose cohorts (10 mg to 600 mg) comprised of 10 participants each, and two multiple-dose cohorts (100 and 200 mg once daily) comprised of 10 participants each. This study data demonstrated that ulacamten was safe and well tolerated in healthy participants. No serious adverse events were observed and the stopping criteria for the study were not met. The half-life of ulacamten was observed to be in the range of 14 to 17 hours. Ulacamten demonstrated dose-linearity without a change in half-life over a wide range of exposures, with a steady-state appearing evident within seven days of dosing. Left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular fractional shortening decreased from baseline in an exposure-dependent manner, and the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship appeared shallow and predictable. At the highest single dose of 600 mg, the mean decrease in LVEF was <5%. These results demonstrate pharmacologic properties that may enable once-daily fixed-dose administration in the future.

Royalty Pharma Revenue Interest

In the second quarter of 2024, we entered into a Revenue Participation Right Purchase agreement, which we refer to as the RP Ulacamten RPA, with RPI ICAV, pursuant to which RPI ICAV purchased rights to certain revenue streams from worldwide net sales of drug products containing ulacamten by us, our affiliates or licensees. Under the RP Ulacamten RPA, in consideration of an up-front $50 million payment, RPI ICAV purchased a revenue interest entitling it to 1.0% of our annual worldwide net sales of drug products containing ulacamten. In addition, following the initiation of the first Phase 3 clinical trial (or the Phase 3 portion of the first Phase 2b/3 clinical trial) in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in humans for ulacamten, RPI ICAV, at its sole discretion, has the right to purchase an additional revenue interest which if exercised would entitle it to an additional 3.5% of our annual worldwide net sales of drug products containing ulacamten in consideration of a payment equal to 50.0% of our future research and development costs of a Phase 3 trial of ulacamten up to a maximum of $150 million.

We believe that our skeletal sarcomere activators may lead to new therapeutic options for diseases and medical conditions associated with neuromuscular dysfunction and potentially also conditions associated with aging and muscle weakness and wasting. The clinical effects of muscle weakness and wasting, fatigue and loss of mobility can range from decreased quality of life to, in some instances, life-threatening complications. By directly improving skeletal muscle function, a small molecule activator of the skeletal sarcomere potentially could enhance functional performance and quality of life in patients suffering from diseases or medical conditions associated with skeletal muscle weakness or wasting.