Targeted Medication for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

For decades, clinicians have only been able to treat patients’ hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) symptoms—using drugs developed to treat other heart conditions—with limited effectiveness. Currently, non-specific medications are prescribed to treat some of the symptoms that HCM shares with other cardiovascular diseases. These therapies include beta-blockers, anti-arrhythmic drugs, calcium channel blockers and anticoagulants. A new treatment, however, works to reduce the root cause of the problem in many patients. A targeted cardiac myosin inhibitor reduces hypercontractility caused by genetic variants that put the heart into overdrive. By acting specifically on this mechanism of HCM, this novel treatment not only slows the progression of the disease but also helps some patients improve their quality of life. The FDA has assigned a target action date for this therapy of April 28, 2022. If approved, this would be the first medication explicitly dedicated to treating HCM and providing new hope to patients and physicians.

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