Today, a brief rundown of news involving Bluebird bio and Affimed, as well as updates from Cytokinetics, BridgeBio Pharma and Acelyrin that you may have missed.

Carlyle and SK Capital Partners, two investment firms attempting to buy Bluebird bio, have amended their offer to give Bluebird shareholders a choice of payouts. Holders of Bluebird stock can either receive $3 per share plus rights to $6.84 more if a certain sales milestone is achieved — Carlyle and SK Capital’s original bid — or $5 per share. Shareholders previously had a deadline of May 12 to tender their stock to the original deal, but now have until May 29 to do so. Bluebird’s board is in favor of accepting Carlyle and SK Capital’s offer, warning investors in a statement Wednesday that, absent a deal, the company is at “significant risk” of default. — Ned Pagliarulo

Cancer drug developer Affimed has filed for “insolvency,” warning investors Tuesday that there is “substantial doubt” the company can sustain itself. As a result of the filing, Affimed shares will be suspended from trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange beginning May 20. The company has been talking with “potential investors and partners” about deals or other ways in which it might raise capital, but has so far been unsuccessful. Affimed, which has three drugs in clinical testing, last reported cash holdings of 24 million euros as of Sept. 30, 2024. — Ned Pagliarulo

Cytokinetics on Tuesday said its experimental drug aficamten outperformed beta blockers in a Phase 3 study of people with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. U.S. regulators are already reviewing aficamten’s use in the inherited heart condition, with an approval decision now expected by late December after a recent delay. The latest results, though generally expected by investors, could help boost its case with physicians and insurers, wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams. If approved, aficamten would compete for market share with Bristol Myers Squibb’s Camzyos, which booked $602 million in sales last year. — Ben Fidler

BridgeBio Pharma has begun dosing patients in a first-of-its-kind Phase 3 trial testing whether its drug, Attruby, can prevent or delay the onset of transthyretin amyloidosis in people more likely to inherit it. The trial, ACT-EARLY, will evaluate Attruby as a prophylactic treatment in carriers of a disease-causing variant of the TTR gene that’s implicated in the hereditary form of the condition. Attruby is one of three marketed drugs that can slow progression of a type of transthyretin amyloidosis that affects the heart. No medicines have been proven to prevent the disease, however. — Ben Fidler

Shareholders in Acelyrin and Alumis voted Tuesday to combine the two biotechnology companies, ending a twisting merger saga that featured an unsolicited bid from an entity controlled by Tang Capital and a push from Trium Capital to force Acelyrin to liquidate its assets and return cash to its stockholders. Since announcing the planned combination, Alumis has tweaked the terms of the deal, saying its shareholders would own 52% of the new company, while Acelyrin’s would hold 48%. The merger is now set to close in the second quarter of 2025. — Gwendolyn Wu