These delayed findings were presented at the Scientific Conferences of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2022 in Washington, DC. In MAVA-LTE, the factor was associated with significant improvements in the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) ratings, as well as improvements in the NT-proBNP and NYHA class. In an interview with HCPLive, lead author Florian Rader, MD, Co-Director, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Aortopathy Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, stressed the importance of more data on the new HCM drug class. “What people were looking for, I think, is to get more long-term safety data for this whole new class of drugs,” Rader said. “And we found, fortunately, that there are no new safety signals, there are no new concerns, there have been some cases of patients whose ejection fraction has fallen below the 50% limit set by the protocol. “All these patients, the reduction of the ejection fraction, all of these were reversible.” He noted the importance of long-term extension in determining that long-term exposure to the new drug does not increase the incidence of low-ejection fraction. “Overall, I think these results are very encouraging that this will not happen,” Rader said. “But we will monitor these patients and make sure they are doing well throughout the five-year follow-up period.” Rader also expressed his thoughts that mavacamten could change the game for patients with HCM and prevent them from having to undergo an invasive procedure. “Since HCM was first described more than 60 years ago, there has been no specific targeted drug treatment for this disease and mavacamten is now truly the most promising candidate for this role.” Noting his possible approval in late April, Rader discussed what the hiring could be like for the agent. “I think that as with any new class of drugs, there will probably be larger HCM centers that will adopt this new drug probably a little faster than smaller practices,” he said. “And it will also probably depend on how strict the safety monitoring requirements are for this new drug and the price can also play a role.” “Updated cumulative outcomes of Mavacamten therapy from the EXPLORER-LTE cohort of the MAVA-LTE study in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,” presented at ACC 2022.
