#6 - Cleveland Clinic Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2022

Targeted Medication for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A first-in-class medication specifically targets heart muscle to reduce abnormal contractions caused by genetic variants that put the heart into overdrive.

For decades, clinicians have only been able to treat patients’ hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) symptoms – using drugs developed to treat other heart conditions – with limited effectiveness. Currently, non-specific medications are prescribed to treat some of the symptoms that HCM shares with other cardiovascular diseases. These therapies include beta-blockers, anti-arrhythmic drugs, calcium channel blockers and anticoagulants. A new treatment, however, works to reduce the root cause of the problem in many patients. A first-in-class medication specifically targets heart muscle to reduce abnormal contractions caused by genetic variants that put the heart into overdrive. By acting specifically on this mechanism in HCM patients, this novel treatment not only improves symptoms and quality of life, but potentially could slow progression of the disease. The FDA has assigned a target action date for this therapy of April 28, 2022. If approved, this would be the first medication explicitly dedicated to treating HCM and providing new hope to patients and physicians.