John Teerlink, MD: GALACTIC-HF Patients and Potential of Omecamtiv Mecarbil

While cardiologists have made major strides in the fight against cardiovascular disease in the US, a major need to address gaps in heart failure treatment remains and some data suggests rates could skyrocket in the coming decades.

With this in mind, clinicians are always excited to learn about the latest advances in cardiovascular health, especially those related to heart failure. One novel agent on the horizon that has been met with anticipation is the selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil.

With results of the phase 2 COSMIC-HF trial demonstrating the potential therapy’s ability to achieve plasma concentrations associated with improved cardiac function and decreased ventricular diameter, anticipation around the ongoing Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac Outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC-HF) has only grown since it began in 2016.

Designed to assess if use of pharmacokinetic-guided omecamtiv mecarbil as an adjunct therapy could reduce time to cardiovascular death or first heart failure event in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), the selective cardiac myosin activator could help address the aforementioned gap in heart failure treatment—if it were found to be successful.

The most recent data released from GALACTIC-HF pertains to the baseline characteristics of the 8000-patient trial. Briefly, a total of 8256 patients from 35 countries were recruited for the trial—all patients included were required to have a left ventricular ejection fraction of ≤35%

For more on the potential of omecamtiv mecarbil and how the latest data from GALACTIC-HF might inform clinicians, HCPLive® caught up with John Teerlink, MD, professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco and Executive Committee Chair of COSMIC-HF and GALACTIC-HF, for his insights.