Patients living with sickle cell disease live with many challenges. The presence of sickle hemoglobin leads to sickling of the red blood cells and activation of white blood cells which together block the microcapillaries that bring oxygen to tissues producing bouts of pain, sometimes requiring hospitalization, and damaging many tissues in the body. There is a tremendous unmet medical need facing those whose lives are impacted by this devastating disease.
Chief Executive Officer of Imara writes in the blog “Hearing the Patient’s Voice,” patients often do not have access to comprehensive medical care, requiring them to float among emergency rooms, internists, GPs, and hematologist-oncologists. As a result of the disease, the absence of safe and effective therapy and holes in medical care, patients are at elevated risk for acute chest syndrome, strokes, chronic pain and death.