Encouraging early data for Cytokinetics' cardiac muscle myosin activator

Cytokinetics presented data at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, held in San Francisco, regarding its smooth  muscle contractility program.

In January, the US firm announced the selection of a small-molecule  inhibitor of smooth muscle myosin for development.

According to the company, this compound has demonstrated encouraging  pharmacological activity in preclinical models that may relate to its  uses for the potential treatment of diseases such as systemic  hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, asthma and chronic obstructive  pulmonary disease. This novel mechanism drug candidate is expected to  enter Investigational New Drug application-enabling studies this year.