Acoramidis Approved for Cardiomyopathy
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the medicine acoramidis (Beyonttra) from Bayer to treat adult patients with cardiomyopathy (damage to the heart muscle) caused by variant or wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR-CM).
Acoramidis has been approved via a fast-track approval process for medicines, known as the International Recognition Procedure (IRP), following approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) earlier this year. In patients with cardiomyopathy resulting from transthyretin amyloidosis, a protein called transthyretin (TTR) does not work properly, causing it to break up and form fibrous clusters called amyloids. When amyloids form in the heart, the heart muscle stiffens, and the heart can no longer work normally.
The active substance in this newly approved medicine, acoramidis hydrochloride, works to slow down the progression of ATTR-CM by stabilising the TTR protein to help prevent it from breaking apart and forming amyloids. In the UK, there are estimated to be around 600 people with wild-type ATTR-CM, which mainly affects older individuals and is more common in men, and 200 people with hereditary ATTR-CM.
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