The U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously granted orphan drug designation to reldesemtiv for the potential treatment of SMA in 2017. In collaboration with Astellas, Cytokinetics is developing reldesemtiv, a fast skeletal muscle troponin activator (FSTA), as a potential treatment for people with SMA and certain other debilitating diseases and conditions associated with skeletal muscle weakness and/or fatigue.
”We’re pleased that reldesemtiv received orphan designation from the European Commission,” said Fady I. Malik, M.D., Ph.D., Cytokinetics’ Executive Vice President of Research & Development. “Despite advances with SMN-directed treatments, residual muscle impairment and weakness are expected to present continuing challenges for patients with SMA. Treatment with reldesemtiv may represent an additive and complementary approach to increase muscle function.”