Cy­to­ki­net­ics nabs Chi­nese part­ner, up to $450M as CV be­comes com­pa­ny fo­cus

Cy­to­ki­net­ics’ ALS pro­grams may have seen bet­ter days, but its car­dio­vas­cu­lar di­vi­sion has at­tract­ed well-backed part­ners, in­clud­ing Am­gen and Roy­al­ty Phar­ma, who, in 2017 paid $90 mil­lion in ex­change for a 4.5% roy­al­ty on their lead heart drug.

Now a Chi­nese drug­mak­er and a ma­jor in­vestor are sign­ing on­to their sec­ond car­dio­vas­cu­lar can­di­date, an ex­per­i­men­tal drug known as CK-274 and de­signed to treat hy­per­trophic car­diomy­opathies — ge­net­ic con­di­tions that cause heart mus­cles to be­come ab­nor­mal­ly and po­ten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous­ly thick. Ji Xing Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals will pay Cy­to­ki­net­ics $25 mil­lion up­front for the rights to com­mer­cial­ize the drug in Chi­na and cer­tain neigh­bor­ing re­gions, along with $200 mil­lion in po­ten­tial mile­stones.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER