Grants Support Community Engagement for Patient Advocacy Organizations Focused on Cardiovascular and Neuromuscular Diseases
Deadline for Applications is November 13th, 2020
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cytokinetics, Incorporated (Nasdaq: CYTK) today announced a call for proposals for the third annual Cytokinetics Communications Fellowship Grant program. The Communications Fellowship program provides a total of $100,000 in grants to five selected patient advocacy organization serving the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), heart failure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), or spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) communities, and is intended to support increased capacity in communications, awareness building and community engagement.
“Last years’ fellowship grants were provided to five very deserving organizations to support their communication and outreach, and each one dedicated the funds to novel approaches to reach more patients and expand connections in their communities,” said Diane Weiser, Cytokinetics’ Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. “Now that COVID-19 has transformed the communications landscape for advocacy organizations, it is even more important to support creative ways to reach patients as they navigate living with their disease.”
The Cytokinetics Communications Fellowship program annually awards grants to provide funding in support of communications, awareness and outreach, and may support additional personnel or programming, depending on each organization’s needs. The goal of the Cytokinetics Communications Fellowship is to assist patient advocacy organizations by increasing resources that support patient communities and bring increased awareness to the disease in the communities they serve. The recipients of the 2020 Cytokinetics Communications Fellowship Grants were The ALS Association Louisiana-Mississippi Chapter, Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation, Fighting for Kaiden, The Heart Failure Patient Foundation, and Les Turner ALS Foundation.
Eligible organizations must have nonprofit organization status in the United States, and serve the cardiovascular or neuromuscular patient communities in ALS, heart failure, HCM or SMA. The deadline to apply is November 13, 2020 and the grant recipients will be announced in January 2021.
Organizations applying for the grant are required to submit a proposal outlining what activities the Cytokinetics Communications Fellowship program will support and the potential impact of the additional funding. Recipients are responsible for providing an outcomes report to Cytokinetics to measure impact at the end of the funding period. For more information on application criteria, and instructions for how to apply, visit www.cytokinetics.com/fellowship.
About Cytokinetics
Cytokinetics is a late-stage 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 muscle performance is compromised and/or declining. As a leader in muscle biology and the mechanics of muscle performance, the company is developing small molecule drug candidates specifically engineered to impact muscle function and contractility. Cytokinetics is collaborating with Amgen Inc. (Amgen) to develop omecamtiv mecarbil, a novel cardiac muscle activator. Omecamtiv mecarbil is the subject of an international clinical trials program in patients with heart failure including GALACTIC-HF and METEORIC-HF. Amgen holds an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize omecamtiv mecarbil with a sublicense held by Servier for commercialization in Europe and certain other countries. Cytokinetics is developing reldesemtiv, a fast skeletal muscle troponin activator (FSTA) for the potential treatment of ALS and other neuromuscular indications following conduct of FORTITUDE-ALS and other Phase 2 clinical trials. The company is considering potential advancement of reldesemtiv to Phase 3. Cytokinetics is collaborating with Astellas Pharma Inc. (Astellas) to research, develop and commercialize other novel mechanism skeletal sarcomere activators (excluding FSTAs). Licenses held by Amgen and Astellas are subject to specified co-development and co-commercialization rights of Cytokinetics. Cytokinetics is also developing CK-274, a novel cardiac myosin inhibitor that company scientists discovered independent of its collaborations, for the potential treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (HCM). Cytokinetics has granted Ji Xing Pharmaceuticals Limited an exclusive license to develop and commercialize CK-274 in China and Taiwan, in accordance with Cytokinetics’ planned global registration programs. Cytokinetics is conducting REDWOOD-HCM, a Phase 2 clinical trial of CK-274 in patients with obstructive HCM. Cytokinetics continues its over 20-year history of pioneering innovation in muscle biology and related pharmacology focused to diseases of muscle dysfunction and conditions of muscle weakness.
For additional information about Cytokinetics, visit www.cytokinetics.com and follow us on Twitter, 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.
Contact:
Cytokinetics
Diane Weiser
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations
(415) 290-7757
