SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cytokinetics, Incorporated (Nasdaq: CYTK) today announced the recipients of its sixth annual Communications Grant Program, intended to support increased capacity in communications, awareness building and community engagement.

Five grants in the amount of $20,000 each were awarded this year to patient advocacy organizations focused on the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), heart failure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) communities. The grants will support projects to increase access to resources, grow organizational reach and launch educational programs.

“Our unwavering commitment is first and foremost to patients which we demonstrate every day by advancing our science while also supporting patient advocacy organizations with shared values and missions,” said Mary Pomerantz, Cytokinetics’ Senior Director of Patient Advocacy and Engagement. “We are inspired by this year’s recipients who have articulated creative, impactful and compelling strategies to address the distinctive needs of the patient communities they serve.”

The recipients of the 2024 Cytokinetics Communications Grants include:

ALS Therapy Development Institute: The ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) is a non-profit drug discovery lab focused solely on ALS with the goal of pursuing every avenue towards slowing, stopping and ending ALS. With the grant, ALS TDI will launch the ALS Trial Navigator, a unique online platform that guides patients as they learn more about finding and participating in clinical trials for experimental ALS treatments. The ALS Trial Navigator will provide tools including a detailed questionnaire designed to help people with ALS and their caregivers learn about what trials may meet their needs and a filterable, searchable list of recruiting clinical studies around the world.

Cardiomyopathy UK: Cardiomyopathy UK is a specialist national charity for people affected by cardiomyopathy with a vision that everyone affected by cardiomyopathy should live a long and fulfilling life. Cardiomyopathy UK will use the grant to expand Reaching Further, a project aimed at educating those not diagnosed with cardiomyopathy about the symptoms and warning signs. The grant will allow Cardiomyopathy UK to create 15 additional case study stories and refine and optimize the organization’s website.

Global Heart Hub: Global Heart Hub (GHH) is a global non-profit organization established to provide a voice for those living with or affected by cardiovascular disease and serves as an alliance of over 100 heart patients organizations, with affiliates forming Patient Councils focused on specific cardiovascular conditions. The GHH Cardiomyopathy Patient Council currently has 22 patient organization affiliates across 13 countries. The grant will help fund GHH’s Key Messages Project which will create foundational cardiomyopathy messages to be used by patient organizations to have consistent and powerful messaging when communicating the scale, scope and impact of cardiomyopathy to patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and policymakers.

HeartBrothers Foundation: The HeartBrothers Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping heart failure patients and their families navigate the complex journey of heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation. HeartBrothers will utilize this grant to expand outreach efforts, foster digital and in-person partnerships with heart failure hospitals nationwide and increase overall awareness and information about patient resources.

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease: WomenHeart is a patient-centered organization that strives to advance women’s heart health through patient support, community education and advocacy. WomenHeart will use this grant to help fund the organization’s 25^th anniversary campaign. The campaign will raise awareness of women’s heart health by spotlighting the unwavering commitment of WomenHeart Champions and sharing their powerful stories to engage and inspire other women to learn more, take action to improve their heart health and become WomenHeart Champions.

About the Cytokinetics Communications Grant Program

For the past six years, the Cytokinetics Communications Grant Program has supported patient advocacy organizations to help expand their reach, awareness and community engagement by providing resources for new or crucial communication or outreach initiatives that would otherwise be challenging to implement. Cytokinetics has no oversight, involvement or management of the actual projects, programs or outputs. The goal of the Communications Grant Program is to assist patient advocacy organizations by increasing resources in order to better support patient communities and bring increased disease awareness in the communities they serve. The call for proposals for the 2025 Communications Grant Program will be announced during Fall 2024.

About Cytokinetics

Cytokinetics is a late-stage, specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing first-in-class muscle activators and next-in-class muscle inhibitors as potential treatments for debilitating diseases in which cardiac muscle performance is compromised. As a leader in muscle biology and the mechanics of muscle performance, the company is developing small molecule drug candidates specifically engineered to impact myocardial muscle function and contractility. Cytokinetics is preparing for regulatory interactions for aficamten, its next-in-class cardiac myosin inhibitor, following positive results from SEQUOIA-HCM, the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Aficamten is also currently being evaluated in two ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials: MAPLE-HCM, evaluating aficamten as monotherapy compared to metoprolol as monotherapy in patients with obstructive HCM and ACACIA-HCM, evaluating aficamten in patients with non-obstructive HCM. Cytokinetics is also developing omecamtiv mecarbil, a cardiac muscle activator, in patients with heart failure. Additionally, Cytokinetics is developing CK-136, a cardiac troponin activator for the potential treatment HFrEF and other types of heart failure, such as right ventricular failure, resulting from impaired cardiac contractility, and CK-586, a cardiac myosin inhibitor with a mechanism of action distinct from aficamten for the potential treatment of HFpEF.

For additional information about Cytokinetics, visit www.cytokinetics.com and follow us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”). Cytokinetics disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements and claims the protection of the Act’s Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements. Examples of such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to Cytokinetics’ and its partners’ research and development activities of Cytokinetics’ product candidates. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to the risks related to Cytokinetics’ business outlines in Cytokinetics’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and Cytokinetics’ actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which it operates, may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Any forward-looking statements that Cytokinetics makes in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Cytokinetics assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

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Contact:
Cytokinetics
Diane Weiser
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations
(415) 290-7757