June 16 (Reuters) – Edgewise Therapeutics shares fell nearly 10% on Tuesday after the efficacy of its experimental heart-disease drug in a mid-stage study fell short of investor expectations.
The Boulder, Colorado-based company was testing the drug EDG-7500 in patients with two types of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition where the heart muscle thickens and makes it harder to pump blood properly.
In patients with non-obstructive HCM, a harder-to-treat form of the disease, EDG-7500 scored 13 points on a widely used patient score called KCCQ that tracks symptom improvement.
Some investors may have been hoping for a result in the high teens or potentially above 20 points, RBC Capital Markets analyst Leonid Timashev said.
In obstructive HCM, the more common form of the disease, the drug delivered 24 points of improvement on the same scale.
“While we think today’s efficacy data in nHCM may have underwhelmed some investor expectations, we emphasize the drug’s clearly competitive efficacy position” compared with approved drugs, Timashev said, adding that EDG-7500’s safety record was “unmatched in the space.”
EDG-7500 works by slowing the heart’s contraction speed to help it relax better between beats, without reducing its ability to pump blood, unlike rival drugs that target cardiac myosin, such as Cytokinetics’ aficamten.
Timashev estimates the drug may achieve $3.5 billion in potential peak sales.
Edgewise’s drug showed no weakening of the heart’s pumping ability and a low rate of heart rhythm problems at 12 weeks in the 53-patient trial.
Investors may also be concerned about enrollment timelines, the potential need for a head-to-head trial with approved drugs and the long wait for late-stage data, Truist analysts said, while J.P. Morgan analyst Tessa T. Romero said the weakness in Edgewise shares was “misguided.”
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)
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