Home » Employment News » Drug trial failure means biotechnology firm Imara will lay off most of its employees

Drug trial failure means biotechnology firm Imara will lay off most of its employees

By Nithya Bose in Employment News, posted April 20, 2022

Massachusetts based Biotechnology firm, Imara intends to lay off 83 percent of its workforce, after unsatisfactory trial findings forced it to shelve its primary drug candidate.

The announcement on Friday, April 15, came at a time when major biotech firms are reducing headcounts.

Imara was working on a drug called tovinontrine to treat the blood illnesses sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, as well as a kind of heart failure.

The firm had decided to discontinue research in all three indications when the medicine failed to help patients in two Phase 2 tests.

All but six employees will be laid off by the end of the second quarter as the firm considers its strategic options.

At the end of 2021, Imara had 41 full-time workers, 29 of whom worked in research & development.

This is the latest biotech company to cut staff this year.

Since last autumn, more than a dozen publicly listed biotechs have announced layoffs.

For Imara, the decision signals the end of a process that began six years ago, when it was created by Cydan Development, an orphan drug development firm.

Source: BioPharma Dive

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