Imara puts an end to its strug­gles as Or­biMed, 5AM-backed pre­ci­sion on­col­o­gy play­er rides the shell to Nas­daq

Since its launch in 2016 out of New En­ter­prise As­so­ciates’ or­phan drug ac­cel­er­a­tor Cy­dan — and through its 2020 IPO rais­ing $75 mil­lion — Imara has staunch­ly re­mained a sin­gle-prod­uct biotech fo­cused on a drug for sick­le cell dis­ease. Even though it even­tu­al­ly in-li­censed a sec­ond can­di­date, the lead pro­gram loomed dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly large.

So as the drug went, so will the com­pa­ny.

A month af­ter sell­ing its top drug — which failed two stud­ies in blood dis­or­ders — to the heart dis­ease out­fit Car­du­ri­on, Imara is hand­ing over its spot on Nas­daq to En­liv­en Ther­a­peu­tics through a re­verse merg­er.

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