Cytokinetics, Inc. sells a drug, Myqorzo®, indicated for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM).  The drug’s active ingredient is aficamten, which is a cardiac myosin inhibitor.  In 2020, Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired a company that sells one of the only other competing drugs to Myqorzo.  Then in May 2026, BMS acquired a patent covering the use of aficamten to treat cardiac hypercontractility.  Cytokinetics claims BMS acquired this patent only to stifle Myqorzo’s commercial potential.  On August 12, Cyotkinetics filed suit against BMS seeking a judgmentthat it does not infringe BMS’s aficamten patent.  Can Cytokinetics extinguish BMS’s patent threat against Myqorzo?

Bristol Myers Squibb recently announced a deal to buy Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion.  Bristol Myers has touted the deal as accelerating the company’s expansion into neuroscience.  Karuna’s lead asset, KarXT, is an antipsychotic that is a combination of two prior drugs, xanomeline and trospium.  Analysts have reported that KarXT could surpass $6 billion in annual sales.  However, that may depend on whether Karuna has protected KarXT with sufficient intellectual property.  Does KarXT have strong enough patent protection to ward off generics for long enough to make Bristol Myers’ gamble pay off?

While Bristol Myers ($BMY) proposed acquisition of Celgene’s ($CELG) remains in question by activists questioning Revlimid®’s pending patent cliff, a new patent angle emerges.  A Credit Suisse analyst recently identified a patent owned by Novartis ($NVS) that could purportedly act as a “roadblock” to Celgene’s MS drug ozanimod.  Is this true?