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MyoKardia, Inc. (MYOK) Q1 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Logo of jester cap with thought bubble with words 'Fool Transcripts' below it
Logo of jester cap with thought bubble with words 'Fool Transcripts' below it

Image source: The Motley Fool.

MyoKardia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYOK)
Q1 2019 Earnings Call
May 9, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks

  • Questions and Answers

  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the MyoKardia first quarter 2019 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions for how to participate will follow at that time. During the conference, if anyone should require assistance, please press * then the number 0 on your touch-tone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Miss Michelle Corral. Ma'am, you may begin.

Michelle Corral -- Head of Communications and Investor Relations

Thank you, Jimmy. Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us for today's call. I'm Michelle Corral, MyoKardia's Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. Today we will be reviewing first quarter financial results and we're going to discuss recent corporate and clinical accomplishments, including the completion of enrollment in our MAVERICK Phase 2 trial of Mavacamten in non-constructive HCM.

Leading today's call is MyoKardia's CEO, Tassos Gianakakos. Tassos is joined by Jay Edelberg, who joined MyoKardia last quarter from Sanofi as our SVP of Clinical Development, Dr. Marc Semigran, SVP, Medical Science, and Taylor Harris, our Chief Financial Officer.

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The financial results press release was issued earlier this afternoon and is available on our website. As a reminder, the information discussed during this call will include forward-looking statements, which represent the company's view as of today, May 9, 2019. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or future events, except as required by law. Please refer to today's press release as well as our filings with the SEC for information concerning risk factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.

I'd like to now hand the call over to our CEO. Tassos?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining us today. MyoKardia was founded with an important and bold vision -- to overcome the challenges associated with cardiovascular drug development by bringing novel precision medicines to take on these diseases, simply not good enough to be treating millions of people with decades old non-specific drugs. Instead of addressing everyone with heart disease as though it's a single common condition, MyoKardia researches the underlying causes of disease, designs a therapy specifically targeting the cause, and identifies patients for whom that targeted medicine is most likely to benefit.

Six and a half years into our journey, we've made remarkable progress. If we think about where we expect MyoKardia to be in just 12 to 18 months, we'll have Mavacamten's new drug application approaching submission and review at the FDA for the treatment of obstructive HCM, a registration program in process in non-obstructive HCM, Mavacamten's second indication, our candidate MYK-491 moving into late-stage development for the improvement of systolic disease, MYK-224 also moving into late-stage development for additional HCM segments, a fourth therapeutic candidate approaching the clinic and a growing free clinical pipeline based on our internal research platform.

That's a profile we're excited to get to, four clinical programs, three in late-stage and one approaching commercialization. All of these therapies have been discovered and developed by MyoKardia scientists. Our ambition is to be the world's leading cardiovascular company. We're focused on changing the lives of people with serious cardiovascular disease through bold innovation. Our near-term path to achieve this has two main components. The first is realizing the full potential of Mavacamten. The second is unlocking value rom our growing pipeline.

By achieving these two goals, we feel MyoKardia will bring much needed new therapies to people with HCM, systolic and diastolic disease, and in so doing create significant value for our stakeholders, including our valued employees and shareholders. So, let's take these two components one at a time, Mavacamten first.

What are we doing to realize this full potential? First, we're incredibly focused on the successful execution of our US registration program for obstructive HCM. In parallel, we're ramping up our efforts to prepare for a successful US launch and are evaluating a variety of options to get to patients outside the US and around the world. We're also working hard to address additional patient segments that we think can benefit from Mavacamten.

Along these lines, we announced today that we successfully wrapped up enrollment for MAVERICK, a huge achievement and key takeaway from today's call. MAVERICK is the largest study of its kind looking at non-obstructed HCM. The study came in on schedule for our guidance, setting us up for top line results in the fourth quarter of this year, at which time we expect to advance into our registration program. We're very proud of the team effort here.

As we advance our clinical studies and get ready for Mavacamten's potential commercial launch, we're building on our disease area leadership in several ways. We're deepening our relationships with the broader community diagnosing and caring for people with HCM and we're working to increase awareness of the significant burden of disease and the need for additional new treatments. All of that positions us well to realize the full potential of Mavacamten.

On our second objective of unlocking value in our pipeline, the current focus is on important value-creating catalysts for our 491 and 224 candidates. Specifically, we're generating important clinical data this year and are defining the target patient segments we believe they can benefit the most. While we won't spend too much time on that today, we will have more to say about them as we approach Phase 2 results for 491 later in the year and initiate Phase 1 with 224 in the coming months.

The remainder of today's call will be focused on Mavacamten and specifically on its potential to change the lives of people with non-obstructed HCM. With the imminent completion of MAVERICK's enrollment, Jay and Marc will walk you through the need for new treatments for non-obstructed HCM, why we believe Mavacamten can be an important therapy in this disease, and what we expect to see from MAVERICK's study later this year.

Before I hand it over to them, a few updates related to MyoKardia's committed to disease area leadership and the great progress we're making in Mavacamten's registrational program for obstructive HCM. We continue to be really pleased with the progress of the EXPLORER study. We're on track with enrollment, which we expect to complete in the second half of this year.

I recently hit the road with Jay and members of our clinical operations team for a week of EXPLORER site visits. For me, it was really gratifying to have the opportunity to see firsthand the hope and enthusiasm that's out there for Mavacamten. These centers have been on the frontline of HCM patient care for decades with limited treatment options and they know firsthand the difficulties faced every day by people with this disease.

Patients are out there and they're eagerly waiting for new treatments that can make a difference in their daily lives and can hopefully stave off the decline and complications that come over time with HCM. These visits are incredibly inspirational. Not only does the close engagement with the sites help us ensure high-quality execution through training and monitoring, but it reminds us of the urgency and responsibility of our work.

The growing enthusiasm we're seeing from Mavacamten and EXPLORER was further fueled by the recent set of PIONEER OLE data presented at the ACC this past March. That data from our PIONEER open label extension continues to bear out the striking results we observed in Phase 2 with the nine-month data recently accepted for presentation at the September European Society of Cardiology meeting in Paris.

Throughout MyoKardia's history we've built relationships with the leaders in the field of HCM, from our founders to the share investigators to the team at Duke that helped developed the HCM care app. That commitment continues with progress announced last week on two initiatives, MyoSeeds and 23andMe.

MyoSeeds is a competitive research grant program funded by MyoKardia with the goal to encourage clinical and academic scientists to look hard at the underlying biology of cardiomyopathies. Three exciting projects have been selected for 2019 and we look forward to working with these talented scientists and supporting their important efforts.

Last week also saw the launch of the HCM community page, which will be available to an estimated 9,000 23andMe customers who have self-identified as having HCM. HCM is the most common inheritable cardiovascular disease and by partnering with a company like 23andMe focused on helping people access and understand their own genetic information, we can provide patients with important insights into their condition. In addition to being the right thing to do for the broader HCM community, these relationships support our programs as we look ahead to the potential approval of our products.

So, at this point, I'm pleased to introduce you to Jay Edelberg, who will be providing the MAVERICK trial update. Jay joined us in February as our new Senior Vice President of Clinical development. A clinical cardiologist and vascular biologist by training, Jay brings more than 20 years of experience from both academia and industry.

He joined us from Sanofi, where he led global cardiovascular development and spearheaded the Praluent program through approval and launch. Jay also oversaw the clinical development and global project teams involved in the MyoKardia relationship while at Sanofi. We're thrilled to have him on the team.

Jay, take it away.

Jay Edelberg -- Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

Thanks, Tassos. It's been an honor and privilege to join the MAVERICK to join the MyoKardia team, a team I've admired for several years, knowing their dedication to bringing new therapies to our patients. As a cardiologist, I know the frustration and limitations my patients have with current treatments for cardiomyopathy and heart failure. I know we must do better.

We know that the number of people suffering from heart failure in the US will continue to grow. It's projected to increase by over 30% in the next ten years. I believe we at MyoKardia have the opportunity to rewrite the fates for many of our patients by developing therapies treating the specific molecular pathobiology that drives their condition. Our clinical development team is excellent and working well to deliver important studies for our patients.

As Tassos mentioned, EXPLORER enrollment on track and the trial is proceeding as planned. This was a notable achievement as EXPLORER is the largest and most comprehensive randomized clinical trial ever conducted in patients with obstructive HCM.

In MAVERICK, we're conducting one of the first and largest randomized clinical control trials in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or nHCM patients. MAVERICK is a dose-ranging study with a primary endpoint of safety and tolerability in the non-obstructive population.

This groundbreaking trial promises to be highly informative and should establish the scientific foundation for a registration program in non-HCM as Mavacamten's second indication. The results should also provide clinical data on Mavacamten's potential to impact patients' symptoms, heart function, including measures of diastolic compliance and relaxation.

We're quickly approaching complete enrollment in MAVERICK, having closed screening on schedule on April 19th. The last patient should enter the study for enrollment next week. Patients in MAVERICK have been assigned to one of three groups to receive once-daily doses of Mavacamten targeting two dosing concentrations centered around 200 and 500 nanograms per mil or placebo.

By design, some patients will be above and others below the target concentrations in order to get a fuller picture of the most clinically appropriate dosing approach in this population since there's no obstructive gradient to guide dose titration.

Our patients start on a low dose and after PK assessment at week four, doses are adjusted in a blinded fashion week six in line with the patient's assigned cohort. Patients in MAVERICK may remain on any background medications during the duration of the study. The duration of MAVERICK is 28 weeks, including a four-week screening period, 16 weeks on treatment, and additional 8 weeks for wash-up.

Following the trial period, MAVERICK patients are eligible and encouraged to participate in the ongoing MAVA long-term extension study. Topline results from MAVERICK are anticipated in the fourth quarter of this year.

Keeping in mind the trailblazing nature of this trial and this population, success in MAVERICK is primarily about establishing drug safety and defining the protocol parameters for a registration program in nHCM. In addition to safety in dosing, we'll also be looking for trends and symptoms in functional improvement, indications of Mavacamten's effects on diastolic compliance.

I should note that MAVERICK is not designed to achieve statistical significance in these endpoints. Among the secondary and exploratory endpoints that will be assessed will affect Mavacamten include exercise capacity as measured by peak VO2, changes in New York Heart Association functional class, and diastolic and systolic function as measured by echocardiography, plasma NTproBNP levels, and symptoms and quality of life assessments.

We've even integrated a digital health component into the study to track patients' day-to-day activities using a wrist-worn accelerometr. Based on MAVERICK, we anticipate identifying dose, duration, population or subpopulation, and the clinical endpoints. Much the same way the totality of the data from the two cohorts of pioneer have guided the design of explorer.

The second aspect of MAVERICK will be very meaningful to us as we can learn about Mavacamten's impact on diastolic compliance. Considering the recent data from PIONEER OLE, the context of MAVERICK, we're particularly excited about the potential translation to the nHCM heart.

The first I'd like to highlight is NTproBNP, a well-established measure of cardio wall stress. In OLE, saw levels go from a mean of over 1,800 down to 170 picograms per mill, a greater than 90% reduction. I also want to highlight the reduction and life of atrial volume seen in PIONEER OLE. We know that elevations and LA volume is an indicator of potential diminished cardiac function, increased risk of heart failure, stroke, and death.

Most specifically, LA volume is a predictor of atrial fibrillation in HCM patients. In the OLE, we saw a statistically significant decrease in LA volume from just over 40 milliliters per meter squared to less than 30 at week 24. We look forward to seeing the results of LA volume in MAVERICK.

Results of MAVERICK have the potential to propel us into late-stage efficacy studies in Mavacamten's second indication. Similarly, the results will provide important insights that will be applied to our research programs. Ultimately, data generated from the study will be meaningful in fueling our future pipeline growth. We anticipate reporting topline data from MAVERICK in the fourth quarter and will pursue presentations of the data at medical and scientific congresses early next year.

Marc will now talk about the needs in HCM patients. Marc, take it away.

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

Thank you, Jay. I wanted to take a moment today to review what we know about non-obstructive HCM and why we are all so excited for the data that will emerge from the MAVERICK trial. The non-obstructive HCM population makes up approximately one-third of HCM patients. Based on our analyses of claims data and the literature, there are approximately 30,000 or 40,000 nHCM patients in the US diagnosed and seeking treatment. In addition, there is ample evidence that their obstructive and non-obstructive HCM are greatly underdiagnosed.

Non-obstructive HCM patients share the same genetic mutations observed in obstructive HCM. The mutations have the same primary effect, increasing contractility of the heart, which in turn results in abnormally thick heart muscle tissue that is stiff and non-compliant. Cardiac filling and pumping with each heartbeat is diminished, even as the disease causes the heart to work harder.

Patients with non-obstructive disease suffer from shortness of breath and a feeling of tightness and congestion in their chest that limits activity. Non-obstructive HCM patients are also highly prone to develop atrial fibrillation, stroke, and heart failure. There are no targeted therapeutic treatment options available to non-obstructive HCM patients.

At Mass General, where I led the heart failure and cardiac transplant program, we implant left ventricular assist devices, or LVADs, in patients with advanced non-obstructive HCM to assist their heart in pumping blood and keeping them alive until a donor organ was available for a heart transplant. While both LVAD implantation and transplant can be life-saving, they are complex surgical procedures that do result in a limited quantity and quality of life.

The defining difference between non-obstructive HCM and obstructive HCM is, of course, the lack of obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract. In obstructive HCM, the heart muscle thickening is more marked in the intraventricular septum, while in non-obstructive HCM, the thickening is symmetric. In comparison with an obstructive HCM patient, a non-obstructive patient's heart suffers more from severe abnormalities of diastolic relaxation and compliance as the left ventricle's ability to relax and fill with the oxygenated blood is eliminated and the heart is unable to nourish itself and meet the needs of the rest of the body.

The mutations underpinning both obstructive and non-obstructive HCM cause too many myosin heads to be engaged in what we call the dynamic state. This generates excessive force in the heart muscle. In a normal person at rest, only about 18% of cardiac myosin is in this dynamic state and available to bind with actin, while the majority of myosin heads are in a quiescent state and stay in reserve until needed.

In the HCM heart, studies from our research lab have observed that the number of myosin heads in the dynamic state is almost twice normal. At a molecular level, it's as if the heart is working as though we are running a sprint all of the time. Mavacamten acts by correcting this imbalance between the dynamic and quiescent states of myosin.

In other studies, it has been demonstrated that myosin modulation appears to normalize systolic contractility and improved diastolic relaxation compliance and filling in animals and patients. You may recall at last November's AHA we showed, using invasive pressure volume loops, that Mavacamten treatment of mini pigs with genetic non-obstructive HCM improved diastolic compliance.

At the same AHA meeting, Dr. Steve Heitner of Oregon Health Sciences University and an investigator on our Phase 2 PIONEER study presented clinical data showing that Mavacamten treatment improved established non-invasive echocardiographic biomarkers of diastolic function. These improvements with Mavacamten occurred in measures of LV relaxation, diastolic filling pressure, and in diastolic volume.

Looking closely at the changes from baseline in other measures of diastolic function such as left atrial volume, NTproBNP, and E/e' in the PIONEER open label extension, we continue to see encouraging evidence of a return toward normal. And as we get closer to a MAVERICK readout near the end of this year, we are optimistic that we will continue to see evidence in the exploratory echocardiographic and plasma biomarker endpoints of Mavacamten's ability to improve diastolic function.

The ability to improve compliance and relaxation of the heart during diastole would not only be meaningful in the treatment of non-obstructive HCM, but it could ultimately be one of the most important discoveries we make at MyoKardia, opening up the possibility of treating segments of the 3 million patients in the US who suffer from heart failure driven by the diseases of diastolic dysfunction.

We believe that within this huge heterogenous patient population, there are distinct groups of patients for whom distinct ideologies lead to the heart failure syndrome. For those whose disease is driven by defects in the heart's contraction and relaxation mechanisms, new classes of compounds like Mavacamten and our discovery stage loose one program could transform their care.

I am, as I know my colleagues are, incredibly excited by the opportunity that lies before us to take a leading position in transforming the landscape of heart failure care using a precision medicine approach to tackle one disease at a time.

Taylor will now talk through the quarter's financial results.

Taylor Harris -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Marc. I'll start with a few highlights from our first quarter 2019 results. Total operating expenses were approximately $40 million, including $26.2 million of R&D and $13.6 million of G&A expense. This reflects a year over year increase of approximately $16 million, driven by R&D spend, reflecting the advancement of Mavacamten into late-stage studies, including MAVERICK, EXPLORER, and MAVA-LTE.

Our Q1 R&D expense was net of approximately $10 million of reimbursement from Sanofi. As a reminder, our collaboration agreement with Sanofi formally concluded at the end of the first quarter. Q2 will be our final quarter to receive reimbursement related to the Mavacamten program. As such, operating expenses in the second half of the year will trend upward due to the lack of R&D credits combined with continued pipeline development.

We ended the first quarter of 2019 with $628 million in cash and investments, up from $395 million at year-end. The increase was driven by net proceeds form our follow-on offering at the end of March. We're now funded into the second half of 2021, more than a year past the expected topline data from EXPLORER.

Included in our runway projection is the full registration program for Mavacamten in obstructive HCM and the ability to aggressively advance our pipeline into later stages of development following anticipated positive milestones later this year. We're grateful for the song support demonstrated by both our existing and new investors. You have our commitment to use the funds wisely and efficiently.

So far in 2019, we've hit one major milestone with the release of our six-month PIONEER OLE data and we're close on a second key milestone with the imminent completion of enrollment in our MAVERICK study. Our productivity and execution against our goals will continue. Later this year, we'll be wrapping up enrollment in our pivotal EXPLORER study, reporting data from MAVERICK as well as additional longer-term data from PIONEER OLE.

In our MYK-491 program, we will be presenting data from the Phase 1a study later this month at ESC Heart Failure. In the second half of the year, we'll provide a topline readout from the ongoing Phase 2 study. Lastly, our third clinical candidate, MYK-224 will be advancing into Phase 1 studies mid-year.

So, with that, I'd now like to open the call up to questions. As a reminder, here with me and Tassos are Dr. Jay Edelberg and Dr. Marc Semigran.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please hit * then the number 1 key on your touch-tone telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the # key. Please make sure to mute your line once you've asked your question to prevent any background noise from coming through. Again, if you'd like to queue up to ask a question, please hit * then 1 on your touch-tone telephone.

Our first question comes from Tazeen Ahmad with Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to get a comparison of how you think the market opportunities differ between the obstructive HCM and the non-obstructive markets. I know obstructive is larger. Can you give us a sense directionally about size?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Hi, Tazeen. Thanks for joining our call. If we look at the US for a minute, globally, we've got some good evidence that about 1 in 500 people around the world, plus or minus in certain regions, are carriers of a pathogenic mutation that leads to HCM. In the US, that translates to about 600,000 or 700,000 people. Two-thirds of those folks will be obstructed and one-third non-obstructed. Of that population today, 15% of them only, about 100,000 or so, are seeking medical attention and we can track them through insurance claims in the system.

So, if we think about the current state of the situation where the diagnosis rate is still relatively low and assume for a minute that that's going to be the context in which we launch into, for the US, at least, we think about 100,000 or so patients for HCM as a product addressing both obstructive and non-obstructive with about twice as many obstructive patients that could potentially benefit.

We are working on things like you're seeing with 23andMe and our share registry and other efforts to increase awareness. I think between those and the introduction of Mavacamten, if approved, we're hopefully that we'll see an increase in the diagnosis rate as well.

Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Then how are you thinking about the size of the salesforce that would be needed once you become commercial?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That is, generally I can tell you it is a very focused set of cardiologists today who are treating these folks in the US and in Europe. These are generally split between about in the US maybe 40 or 50 tertiary centers of excellence where they are really focused on inheritable cardiomyopathies in HCM and then there are some patients who are cared for in roughly the couple of thousand or so additional cardiologists who are outside of those specialty centers. That is very much a focused effort for us. Think on the order of 100 or so, plus or minus, reps, but very much in the, I would say, orphan kind of commercial model.

Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Okay. Maybe in the last question for me, in terms of which patients in each population you would think would be most amenable to your therapy, would you say it's the entire addressable population or a certain subset?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think to the extent that these are patients who suffer from symptoms, which for most of them who are seeking medical attention, they have some sort of functional or symptomatic limitation. The evidence that we're generating so far is telling us that we're improving people's symptoms and functions. So, if that bears out, that gives us an opportunity to really help those folks.

If we're able to start seeing more benefits that are longer-term involved, the interruption or the change in the disease process, which we are getting some evidence from the open label extension on, I think that makes it that much more valuable and that much more exciting for physicians to really get their patients on this therapy earlier, particularly for those ones that have had diseases and have suffered with some of the more complicated aspects of the disease, like atrial fibrillation and a little bit further downstream.

Marc, please add.

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

Yeah. We've talked a lot in the past about how some patients with obstructive disease do respond to beta blockers. There were no targeted therapies for the non-obstructive patients. Beta blockers, you can't even hardly make a case physiologically why they would work and the experience of clinicians is that, in fact, they don't work. So, I think that for symptomatic non-obstructive HCM, that Mava is going to be the way to go.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeff Hung with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Hannah -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Hi, this is Hannah on for Jeff. We were wondering -- for the PIONEER open label data later this year, do you expect to report largely the same aspects as you did with the six-month data? Are there any other additional aspects of the data that you think we should be focusing on? Thanks.

Jay Edelberg -- Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

This is Jay. I think we'll be wanting to focus down on how durable those benefits are as the PIONEER OLE continues to progress. I want to call attention to the sustained improvements in New York Heart Association class, the sustained reduction in gradient, and of course the sustained reduction in NTproBNP, and as I mentioned, very exciting to see the impact of the reduction in left atrial volume size.

Hannah -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

And then just one more if I can -- on the DCM data later this year, what do you expect to report for that and what do you see as the bar for deciding whether to advance the program or not?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That's a program we're excited about, where so far in Phase 1, we've shared some single dose data in healthy volunteers and in people who have reduced systolic function. What we're seeing in those single dose studies, really well-tolerated range of doses, which is first and foremost what we're looking for in a Phase 1 program. So, keep a close eye out, tolerability, and safety. We're also seeing improvements in some hemodynamic parameters, importantly looking at increasing stroke volume, which is the volume of blood that's ejected with every systolic squeeze of the heart.

We are seeing in single doses stroke volume improvements of 10% to 15%. A 10% improvement in stroke volume for us that's well-tolerated in this multiple ascending dose study would be pretty exciting. So, similar results as what we've seen so far in the single doses is really what we're looking for.

Operator

Our next question comes from Ritu Baral with Cowen. Your line is now open.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just a few on MAVERICK conduct now that the trial is fully enrolled or close to. Can you tell us how many DSNB looks you've had during that trial, if they're looking at ejection fraction reductions and how overall trial conduct has gone with drop-outs and compliance, etc.?

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Ritu. It's Tassos here. We're not going to get into some of the specifics that you're asking for at this point, but what we can tell you is very pleased and excited and enthusiastic about the progress of the study so far. We look at things along a couple of dimensions, not just the enrollment rate, but really who are the patients that are coming in? We assess that. The quality of the data that we're collecting, we continuously assess that as well. So, in terms of the various facets, we're really happy with where we're at.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Got it. I just wanted a clarification of your comments, Marc. Maybe I misheard this, but you said that the MAVERICK was designed with three cohorts, two target doses. Did I hear you right? You said it was designed so that some patients achieved or stabilized at above and below the 200-nanogram per mL and 400-nanogram per mL targets? If that's the case, what's the protocol there?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

We have three different cohorts there. Some patients where we're targeting to get around 200-nanogram per mil, others where we're looking at 500. Therefore, we expect there's obviously going to be a range in the overall final. So, this actually gives us that fuller range. We can actually design a registration program around the right dosing regimen for our patients.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

So, you're not titrating tightly to either 200 or 500? There's going to be some variability in that range.

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

It's actually built in to make sure we get that full range of PK because we need to know that information so we can design the best registration program.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Okay. So, I guess will patients be evenly distributed in this range or are there other platforms?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

The cohorts are one to one to one.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Okay. Got it. Then you talked about the differences between obstructive and non-obstructive and how basically the main difference is basically the symmetric versus non-symmetric hypertrophy. Is there any difference in symptom profile between obstructive and non-obstructive? Is there any difference between the severity of dysthymia or the rate of dysthymia or any of the other functional measures?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

So, patients with both obstructive as well as non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are symptom-limited. We see reductions in New York Heart Association class, reductions in exercise capacity, increased rates of atrial fibrillation, etc. So, we're focusing on those patients who are limited and we're able to use the baseline characteristics of PIONEER to identify profiles of patients where we thought that we would actually get the maximum benefit for our patients.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Got it. In the overall population, is dysthymia more severe in these patients? Is it less severe?

Jay Edelberg -- Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

There are two. So, syncope, loss of consciousness is more common in the obstructed patients. Angina, the anginal chest pain related to ischemia is more common in the obstructed patients. But I agree. In terms of our target endpoints, exercise capacity limitations, as we assess with peak oxygen consumption and functional capacity, New York Heart Association, those are strikingly similar between the two groups of symptomatic patients.

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Got it. Thanks for taking the questions, Jay and Marc.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anupam Rama with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Anupam Rama -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on all the progress. Maybe a quick question for Taylor. You noted the cash was good until the second half of 2021. You made some broad comments about assumptions on the pipeline, but what specifically is assumed in the guidance for development plans for MYK-491? Thanks so much.

Taylor Harris -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure. As we mentioned, we've got the full registration program for Mavacamten. In obstructive, we've also built in assumptions for what we're going to move to after MAVERICK in non-obstructive. So, I think Mavacamten, you've probably got a pretty good idea there. That is really to support the comment Tassos made, which is a key strategic goal here is to realize the full benefit of Mavacamten. So, there's a lot we're doing, both in terms of clinical development as well as other HCM community building initiatives to make sure that we're exploiting the full value and delivering the full value of Mavacamten.

But then also, this is really what our recent follow-on offering allowed us to do and that's to have some good options on where we take other programs once we get to some of these milestones later in the year. Specifically with MYK-491, we do have the option and we've built this into our cash guidance, to move into some potential proof of concept studies in targeted patient populations.

That's what the team is really working up right now so that when we get to later this year, to a point where we're able to show the data from the current Phase 2, we can not only show data but also talk about potential next steps from there. We do have that option built into the cash runway.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Martin Auster with Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.

Mark -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Hi, this is Mark on for Marty. Thanks for taking my questions. First, when talking to experts, they mentioned the VO2 improvements in PIONEER may be driven by both change in diastolic function and gradient improvement. How should we think about the respective degree of benefit from each of these components?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

So, I think you need to take a look at this holistically. These hearts are severely impacted, obstructive, diastolic components as well. What we're seeing overall is a significant improvement in the reduction of the gradient, the improvement in peak VO2, the reduction in symptoms. So, we think that actually this is fully integrated and one isn't going to simply separate out one from the other because of the interrelationship.

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I would just add there, Marc, what we're seeing now, both in people and in animal models like pigs and we've published some of this data is real improvements in diastolic compliance. This is remarkable, right? There haven't been drugs out there that have done this. That is lowering filling pressures. That's increasing filling volumes. That is very likely, if it persists, to help people feel better and do more.

So, we don't want to underestimate the value and the potential impact on symptoms and functions that a drug like Mavacamten that improves diastole can potentially have if we see these data pan out in the non-obstructive population and in future time points of the open label extension.

Mark -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Got it. Can you compare the baseline peak VO2 in MAVERICK versus PIONEER? Thank you.

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

We're targeting very similar baseline demographics.

Operator

Our next question comes from Alethia Young with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open.

Alethia Young -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to talk a little bit about -- I know there's some metanalysis on long-term outcomes from non-obstructive, which kind of suggests over the longer-term that maybe there's not as much risk of cardiac death and event. Do you think there's any kind of sensitivity that profile by regulatory pathway or what studies are next or do you think the pathway is more similar to what it is with obstructive, where I think the evidence seems a little more straightforward? Thanks.

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Jay can chime in in a second here, but I do think, Alethia, that the regulatory pathway and the conversations are likely going to be similar in terms of the evidence hurdles for safety, the evidence hurdles for efficacy. Right now, we're looking at improvements in function and in symptoms for FDA registration, but very exciting for us and certainly a big part of the story is how we can affect disease burden beyond those.

Those are really important. They're going to impact -- if we're able to support those at registration, those two facets, they're going to impact quality of life improvements and day to day improvements. If we can also demonstrate some of the things we're now seeing in that open label extension, reductions in NTproBNP, reductions in LA volume, etc., it's going to be really exciting.

Our view is those are not necessarily going to be regulatory requirements to prove in either subset, but nevertheless, they're important for us and as you know, we're really going after them.

Alethia Young -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst

Jay, do you have any comment on the outcome studies that exist? Is there some particular bias to think about?

Jay Edelberg -- Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

Remember, the patients that we're studying in MAVERICK are impacted. They have symptoms. They have functional limitations. We're looking to improve that overall. So, we're expecting that based on positive results here, we'll be able to identify the right type of functional symptomatic endpoints much the way we were able to identify those coming out of PIONEER that would allow us to pursue a registration program.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jim Birchenough with Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Unknown Analyst -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst

Thanks for taking the questions. This is [inaudible] in for Jim. The first question -- ejection fraction is something you looked at from a safety perspective in the obstructive HCM study. So, I'm just wondering from the non-obstructive HCM side, is ejection fraction of similar importance, safety-wise, or less important or more important? Could you comment on that?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

Monitoring the effects on ejection fraction are important in both the obstructive as well as the non-obstructive patients and that's why we're studying the range of different PK doses there so that we could identify the right dosing regimen that we could take forward into a registration program in the non-HCM patients, much the way that we've identified a dosing regimen that we're testing now in the EXPLORER trial.

Unknown Analyst -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst

Great. Also, thinking from the obstructive HCM side, you had a success in using imaging of the gradient as a method to guide dosing, so, for the non-obstructive, I know there is no imaging that's probably validated for outcome, but do you think with your data from MAVERICK, could you identify potentially imaging parameters like LV volume or diastolic compliance that you can then use in a future pivotal study to guide dosing or to help in some way?

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

We're really going to be looking at all the parameters of LV function and symptomatology and functional improvement to help us be able to guide both the dosing regimen and the endpoints that we'll be monitoring going forward will be. I think that we know that this is basically a Phase 2 trial that allows us identify these trends that will allow us to identify what's right for a registration program.

Unknown Analyst -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst

Got it. Then last question -- I know you're running the MAVA-LTE study, which enrolls in open label fashion patients from EXPLORER as well as from MAVERICK. The question is would it be possible that you might readout MAVA-LTE at some point because the study is open label? Give us a clue about what treatment effect we should expect for either the Phase 3 EXPLORER or Phase 2 MAVERICK. Thanks.

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

Yeah. We're really looking forward to the results of MAVERICK that will have the topline results from later on this year, the long-term extension, obviously, is population as the patients come out. Then next year, we're looking forward to the results of EXPLORER and looking at the totality of all of these data together.

Unknown Analyst -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I am showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would like to turn the call back to Tassos Giankakos for any closing remarks.

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jimmy. MyoKardia has an incredible opportunity to make a big difference in the lives of people with diseases of the heart muscle, starting with HCM. Our commitment is to advance the understanding of these diseases and better support the patients, their families, and the physicians and staff who care for them.

HCM continues to be misunderstood and underdiagnosed. There are inadequate treatment options available today. It is a progressive, severely debilitating disease that robs people of their ability to enjoy the simple activities of daily living and puts them at risk of serious or even fatal complications.

What we're learning from the patients who so generally share their stories with us is that each of them face unique challenges and questions and managing life with this chronic condition. One thing we do see with remarkable consistency is their strength. They deserve our bests efforts and we're giving it to them, embracing a bold and expansive vision of MyoKardia of how we can change their lies for the better.

It starts with bringing forward our first precision cardiovascular therapy through registration and commercialization accompanied by a deep pipeline addressing HCM, diseases of systolic dysfunction, and tackling the challenges of diastolic disease. This will involve continued progress, successful program execution, and growing momentum, which I look forward to sharing with you along the way.

As always, we're very grateful to the patients who participate in our studies, the investigators whose mission we share, to our shareholders whose support of our mission enables our important work and to our dedicated employees who are responsible for all our achievements. Thanks to everyone for your time today and for your continued support of MyoKardia and our mission.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participating in today's conference. This does conclude your program and you may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Duration: 51 minutes

Call participants:

Michelle Corral -- Head of Communications and Investor Relations

Tassos Gianakakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Jay Edelberg -- Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

Taylor Harris -- Chief Financial Officer

Marc Semigran -- Senior Vice President of Medical Science

Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Hannah -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst

Anupam Rama -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Mark -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst

Alethia Young -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst

Unknown Analyst -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst

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