Imara sells failed blood disorder drug to heart disease outfit Cardurion
09 Sep 2022
After whittling itself down from 41 to just six employees following a fruitless readout on its blood disorder drug earlier this year, Imara has found a buyer to exchange the drug for cash.
Imara will be selling its sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia drug to Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, a cardio upstart that got $300 million from Bain last year. The deal is for $35 million upfront, with $10 million in potential downstream clinical development milestones. Imara can also get an additional $50 million on certain regulatory and commercial milestones, according to the SEC filing from Tuesday.
In April, Imara reported a pair of Phase II failures on its lead drug, a PDE9 inhibitor called tovinontrine (IMR-687), as it showed no meaningful benefit in either of two blood disorder indications. Following that readout, Imara gutted its staff and got rid of CMO Kenneth Attie as it returned to its preclinical candidates.
PhIIb implosion punts Imara back to preclinical mode as biotech axes programs in sickle cell disease, beta-thalassemia
Tovinontrine was also slated for a Phase II trial in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, but it looks like that work may now be taking place at Cardurion.
With the deal, Cardurion — a Boston-based biotech that quietly did two deals with Takeda and Pfizer — adds another heart failure candidate. It is currently testing its lead candidate CRD-740 in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and with reduced ejection fraction. It had in-licensed CRD-740 from Astellas in 2018, and looks to finish its Phase II study on that drug toward the end of 2023.
As a result of the deal, Imara’s stock $IMRA has nearly doubled since Tuesday, sitting at $2.14 before the markets opened Friday. However, that’s a far cry from where the biotech’s stock started, as it’s down 86% from when it went public.
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