Boston-based Imara on Wednesday priced 4.7 million shares at $16 apiece, the low end of its expected range of $16 to $18 a share. The venture-backed company began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Thursday, where shares opened at $14 each. Its stock is trading under the symbol "IMRA."
Imara focuses on developing therapies for rare genetic disorders of hemoglobin. Its lead candidate, IMR-687, is an oral treatment for sickle cell anemia that is currently in the clinical trial stage, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
"Our goal is to leverage IMR-687's differentiated mechanism of action, its ease of administration and stable drug properties to potentially serve a broad range of patients suffering from hemoglobinopathies around the world, including those in underserved regions," the disclosures said.
Proceeds from the offering will go toward speeding IMR-687 through clinical development and expanding on it to treat additional conditions, Imara said.
"We believe that our extensive expertise and experience with IMR-687 will allow us to expand development of IMR-687 into adjacent rare blood cell disorders where there remains a significant unmet medical need," the SEC filings said.
Imara said it is backed by a number of venture capital firms, including entities affiliated with New Enterprise Associates, OrbiMed Advisors LLC and Pfizer Ventures (US) LLC, which is the venture capital arm of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.
Imara could raise more funds from the offering if its underwriters use their 30-day option to purchase up to 705,000 additional shares.
The IPO comes at a moment of significant volatility in public markets, which are grappling with the spread of the new coronavirus. Biotechnology companies are somewhat resilient to such market swings, since most aren't expected to have revenue or built-out operations at the time of their public debuts.
Special-purpose acquisition companies are similarly insulated and have made up much of the IPO pipeline in recent weeks. SPACs are shell entities that raise money through an IPO for future acquisitions. DFP Healthcare Acquisitions Corp., a health care-focused SPAC, started trading on Wednesday, and two others went public last week.
A representative for Imara did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Imara is represented by Cynthia T. Mazareas and Mhairi C. Immermann of WilmerHale.
The offering's underwriters are Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and SVB Leerink LLC.
The underwriters are represented by Richard Segal, Divakar Gupta, Marc Recht and Alison Haggerty of Cooley LLP.
--Additional reporting by Tom Zanki and McCord Pagan. Editing by Stephen Berg.
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