PhI­Ib im­plo­sion punts Imara back to pre­clin­i­cal mode as biotech ax­es pro­grams in sick­le cell dis­ease, be­ta-tha­lassemia

Imara Ther­a­peu­tics is shut­ting down its lead pro­gram in sick­le cell dis­ease and be­ta-tha­lassemia — in­clud­ing a pair of Phase IIb stud­ies — af­ter the lat­est in­ter­im read­outs de­liv­ered un­equiv­o­cal­ly neg­a­tive re­sults.

With that, the biotech will be re­vert­ing back to square one and be­com­ing a pre­clin­i­cal play­er all over again.

Found­ed as a sin­gle-prod­uct com­pa­ny, Imara ini­tial­ly emerged from New En­ter­prise As­so­ciates’ or­phan drug ac­cel­er­a­tor and went pub­lic on the promise that it could take a PDE9 in­hibitor in-li­censed from Lund­beck and re­pur­pose it for the two blood dis­or­ders. But cracks be­gan to form in that rosy pic­ture ear­ly last year when ex­ecs tried to sell in­vestors on some spot­ty Phase IIa da­ta and spin them as pos­i­tive.

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