An experimental medicine from Cytokinetics improved exercise capacity more than a widely prescribed beta blocker in patients newly diagnosed with a common, inherited heart condition, study results reported Saturday showed.

The Cytokinetics drug, called aficamten, is currently being reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration as a potential new treatment for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM. If the drug is approved, the new study results could help accelerate aficamten’s launch and broaden use to more HCM patients.

In the Phase 3 study called MAPLE-HCM, aficamten, taken as a daily pill, showed a 1.1-point gain in peak oxygen uptake, a measure of exercise capacity, compared to a 1.2-point loss for metoprolol, a beta blocker that is commonly prescribed for newly diagnosed pa

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