Imara, a US-based developer of therapies for blood disorders, has filed to raise up to $86.3m in an initial public offering that would enable pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Lundbeck to exit.
Founded in 2016, Imara is working on drug treatments for haemoglobinopathies: disorders that affect the haemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carry oxygen. It filed confidentially for the IPO in September 2019.
The company’s lead product candidate, IMR-687, is being developed to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) and is in phase 2a clinical trials. It expects to initiate phase 2b trials for the candidate in the first half of this year, for both SCD and a blood disorder known as b-thalassemia.
Imara spun off from accelerator Cydan Development in 2016 with $31.5m in a series A round featuring Lundbeck’s corporate venturing arm, Lundbeckfond Ventures, and Pfizer Venture Investments, the Pfizer subsidiary now known as Pfizer Ventures.
The round included Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital vehicle for life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as well as VC firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and investment firm Bay City Capital.
The company announced a $63m series B round in March 2019 that was co-led by OrbiMed and Arix Bioscience and backed by Lundbeckfonden Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, NEA, Bay City Capital, RA Capital and Rock Springs Capital, but the IPO filing states that round actually closed at $45.8m.
NEA is Imara’s largest shareholder, with a 31.8% stake, followed by Lundbeckfond Invest (16.3%), Pfizer Ventures (11.2%), OrbiMed and Arix (10.8% each), Bay City Capital (6.4%) and RA Capital (5.6%).
The company has appointed Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets and SVB Leerink as underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Market.
