The cardiac sarcomere is the basic unit of muscle contraction in the heart, and is a highly ordered cytoskeletal structure composed of cardiac muscle myosin, actin and a set of regulatory proteins. The discovery and development of small molecule cardiac muscle myosin activators would lead to promising treatments for acute and chronic heart failure. Cardiac muscle myosin is the cytoskeletal motor protein in the cardiac muscle cell. It is directly responsible for converting chemical energy into the mechanical force, resulting in cardiac muscle contraction. Current positive inotropic agents, such as beta-adrenergic receptor agonists or inhibitors of phosphodiesterase activity, increase the concentration of intracellular calcium, thereby increasing cardiac sarcomere contractility. However, the increase in calcium levels increase the velocity of cardiac muscle contraction and shortens systolic ejection time, which has been linked to potentially life-threatening side effects. In contrast, cardiac muscle myosin activators work by a mechanism that directly stimulates the activity of the cardiac muscle myosin motor protein, without increasing the intracellular calcium concentration. They accelerate the rate-limiting step of the myosin enzymatic cycle and shift it in favour of the force-producing state. Rather than increasing the velocity of cardiac contraction, this mechanism instead lengthens the systolic ejection time, which results in increased cardiac muscle contractility and cardiac output in a potentially more oxygen-efficient manner. Omecamtiv mecarbil is a first in class direct activator of cardiac myosin, the motor protein that causes cardiac contraction. It is being evaluated as a potential treatment of heart failure in both intravenous and oral formulations with the goal of establishing a new continuum of care for patients in both the in-hospital and outpatient settings. Clinical trials providing an I.V. delivery of omecamtiv mecarbil have shown that plasma levels
