Cambridge, MA's Blueprint Medicines is lining up to raise $100 million in an IPO to advance a stable of personalized cancer treatments and build out its pipeline.
The biotech, a 2011 Fierce 15 honoree, has yet to spell out how many shares it plans to offer or at what price, disclosing only that it plans to trade on the Nasdaq exchange under "BPMC." With the proceeds, Blueprint will hit the gas on some preclinical cancer therapies discovered through its product engine, which uses genomic profiling to match compounds from a library of kinase inhibitors with the cancers they're best suited to treat, crafting precision therapies.
Leading the way is the early-stage BLU-285, an oral treatment designed to combat cancers of the bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract, and BLU-554, a therapy for liver cancer. Blueprint plans to get both drugs into Phase I trials by the middle of this year, aiming to quickly establish proof-of-concept and then roll into Phase II. The biotech is also earmarking some of its potential IPO haul to advance a preclinical lung cancer candidate, planning to set aside additional funds for ongoing discovery projects.
The promise of Blueprint's R&D platform helped lure rare disease heavyweight Alexion ($ALXN) to enter a $265 million collaboration deal earlier this month, tapping the biotech's screening know-how to find new treatments for genetic disorders.
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| Blueprint CEO Jeffrey Albers |
Blueprint, a brainchild of Third Rock Ventures, closed a $50 million C round in November and has raised about $115 million since launching in 2011. Jeffrey Albers, who ran the U.S. division of Algeta before Bayer bought it for $2.9 billion, came aboard as CEO over the summer.
Meanwhile, 2014's bracing pace of biotech IPOs has largely continued into the new year, as a handful of Wall Street misfires haven't discouraged a steady stream of hopefuls. Over the last month, Aduro Biotech, Cidara Therapeutics and XBiotech have filed to raise more than $200 million combined in hopes the industry's IPO window remains open. Last year, nearly 90 life sciences companies went public, raising more than $6 billion.
- read the filing
Special Report: FierceBiotech's 2011 Fierce 15 - Blueprint Medicines