MyoKardia Inc. will collaborate with LianBio to develop and market an experimental heart disease drug called mavacamten in China and other Asian territories.

Mavacamten, or MYK-461, is being developed by MyoKardia to treat patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, a disease that causes the heart muscle to become thick. The drug is also being explored in a targeted population of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a condition that occurs when the lower left chamber of the heart is unable to fill properly with blood.

LianBio CEO Bing Li said that HCM affects about 1 million people in China with limited treatment options.

The companies will initially pursue a registration strategy for mavacamten in China for obstructive HCM, with plans for additional indications to follow, in line with MyoKardia's development strategy.

LianBio will fund all development and commercial expenses in the collaboration territory while MyoKardia will receive a payment of $40 million at closing with additional committed payments within the first six months of the partnership. The company will also be eligible to receive milestone payments totaling $147.5 million subject to certain regulatory and sales targets, as well as tiered double-digit royalties on the sale of mavacamten in the territories in the agreement.

MyoKardia will also receive an equity stake in LianBio's cardiorenal-focused subsidiary, Lian Cardiovascular, and MyoKardia's CEO Tassos Gianakakos will be appointed to LianBio's board.

LianBio was recently launched by Perceptive Advisors to partner with biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate the availability of innovative medicines across China. The company's initial portfolio consists of late-stage therapeutics for development and commercialization in China and major Asian markets.