BridgeBio's acoramidis billed as potential rival to Pfizer's Vyndaqel

Acoramidis, an orally-administered small molecule transthyretin from US biotech BridgeBio Pharma (Nasdaq: BBIO) that is currently being assessed in Phase II and Phase III trials, could compete with Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Vyndaqel (tafamidis) in the transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and ATTR-polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN) market.

That is the view of Samisha Khangaonkar, pharma analyst at data and analytics company, GlobalData.

"Due to the age demographics of ATTR-CM patients, many physicians are opting out of Vyndaqel treatment to avoid placing the stress of payment on their patients"She said: “As many early symptoms of amyloidosis can be difficult to differentiate from other diseases, diagnosing patients at an early stage is an obstacle faced by many clinicians. According to key opinion leaders interviewed by GlobalData, ATTR-CM patients were seeing an average diagnosis timeframe of 8.6 years, at which point almost 50% would already be under cardiac care. This previous symptomatic care can also be an issue as many cardiology drugs can cause an exacerbation of ATTR symptoms and lead to a clinical worsening of the associated cardiomyopathy.”