Genetic Dilated Cardiomyopathy

We are addressing a critical unmet need for people with inherited sarcomere variants.

Image Genetic Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a cardiac muscle disorder affecting the heart’s main ventricular and atrial chambers, making it difficult to pump blood to the rest of the body. Nearly 40% of DCM is caused by underlying genetic variants. The most common variant is in genes of the sarcomere, the heart’s contractile machinery, including the TTN and MYH7 genes being among the most common.

Genetic DCM carries significant risk of disease progression to advanced stages of heart failure. Occurring in as many as one in every 250 people, DCM is the leading cause of heart transplants globally. Despite the availability of treatments to address symptoms, there are no therapies that specifically target the underlying causes of primary DCM. An important opportunity exists to create a new standard of care for this progressive disease and restore cardiac function by targeting sarcomeric gene variants to prevent disease progression.

Watch the video below to learn more about how DCM can be associated with genetic variants that lead to dysfunction of myosin heads in the heart muscle:

NOTE: This video is for educational and scientific purposes only. Intended for U.S. audiences only.

Danicamtiv for Genetic DCM

Danicamtiv is an investigational direct and selective activator of atrial and ventricular myosin designed to address a root cause of genetic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) driven by myosin dysfunction.

  • DCM can be caused by genetic variants that lead to reductions in the number and/or performance of working myosin motors. This myosin dysfunction impairs the ability of the heart muscle to contract and relax
  • Danicamtiv is an investigational oral small molecule that may directly bind to and activate ventricular and atrial myosin
  • In the setting of myosin dysfunction, danicamtiv may restore the number and function of working myosin motors in the “ON” state to potentially improve cardiac performance

This is an investigational compound under clinical study. Safety and efficacy have not been proven yet.

Kardigan is advancing danicamtiv, a potential first-in-class direct myosin activator targeting genetic DCM driven by sarcomeric variants, to restore cardiac function through direct activation of both atrial and ventricular function. Data presented at the Heart Failure Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting 2025 and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) demonstrated that in a Phase 2 study, danicamtiv treatment was associated with statistically significant improvements in left atrial function index and left ventricular ejection fraction, particularly in patients with genetic DCM driven by sarcomeric variants.

These data support the hypothesis that danicamtiv directly activates myosin and corrects the dysfunction resulting from sarcomeric variants in people with DCM and provides a strong rationale for further investigation. Danicamtiv is currently being evaluated in the ongoing KINSHIP-DCM Phase 2b/3 adaptive, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Learn more about the KINSHIP-DCM clinical trial.

Kardigan in-licensed exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to danicamtiv, an investigational drug discovered at MyoKardia and further developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.