Cytokinetics Inc. CEO Robert Blum said it's "highly unlikely" that the phase III trial planned with fast skeletal muscle troponin activator reldesemtiv, also known as CK-2127107, will begin this year, "just knowing what the tasks in front of us are." But the South San Francisco-based firm, with partner Astellas Inc., of Tokyo, is moving ahead with the candidate in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) despite results from the Fortitude-ALS trial showing that the drug missed statistical significance for the primary efficacy analysis after 12 weeks of treatment.