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Bristol Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company, recently announced the aquisition of MyoKardia, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases, for $13.1 billion in cash.

MyoKardia was co-founded by Leslie Leinwand, Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at CU Boulder's BioFrontiers Institute, in 2012. Learn more about Leinwand's involvement here.

Through the transaction, Bristol Myers Squibb gains mavacamten, a potential first-in-class cardiovascular medicine for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (“HCM”), a chronic heart disease with high morbidity and patient impact. A New Drug Application (“NDA”) for mavacamten for the treatment of symptomatic obstructive HCM – based on data from the EXPLORER-HCM study – is expected to be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) in the first quarter of 2021.

Leinwand and her three co-founders shared a vision for therapeutic innovation in treating cardiovascular disease – the number one cause of death globally. Leveraging their diverse expertise in company formation, myosin motors and heart muscle function and genetics, the founders teamed with Third Rock Ventures to form MyoKardia, with a mission to discover and develop novel therapeutics that could address the underlying biomechanical cause of disease for well-defined patient populations.

Leinwand (pictured right) and her research lab continue to collaborate with the company, currently on finding new treatments for rare genetic diseases.