Braveheart Bio has waded into the fight for a heart disease market, paying (PDF) $65 million upfront for a rival to Bristol Myers Squibb’s Camzyos and Cytokinetics’ aficamten.
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has facilitated Braveheart’s attempt to insert itself into the emerging rivalry between BMS and Cytokinetics. In return for $32.5 million in cash and the same amount in stock, Braveheart has landed ex-China rights to Hengrui Pharma’s selective myosin inhibitor HRS-1893. The deal includes a $10 million near-term milestone and more than $1 billion in more distant potential paydays.
The outlay has secured Braveheart rights to a drug candidate that is in phase 3 development in China. Like Camzyos and aficamten, HRS-1893 is designed to treat obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by inhibiting myosin. Camzyos and aficamten have improved patients’ oxygen capacity in phase 3 trials.
Braveheart has flown below the radar since setting up shop last year. Travis Murdoch, M.D., founded the biotech and serves as its CEO. Murdoch led HI-Bio to a $1.15 billion takeover by Biogen last year. After a stint leading Biogen’s West Coast hub, Murdoch returned to startup life with Braveheart and raised cash from Forbion and OrbiMed to support his plans.
Full details of those plans are yet to emerge, but the Hengrui Pharma deal sheds some light on where the startup will direct its energy. Braveheart has ceded a big head start to BMS, which launched Camzyos in 2022, and Cytokinetics, which could receive approval for aficamten this year. While HRS-1893 is in phase 3 in China, development in the West is at an early stage. A phase 1 trial started in Australia in June.
Offloading the ex-China rights to HRS-1893 extends a string of deals involving Hengrui Pharma. GSK paid $500 million upfront to enter into a broad deal with the Chinese company in July. The GSK deal arrived months after Merck & Co. paid $200 million upfront for a midphase lipoprotein(a) inhibitor.