CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ: BPMC), a leader in discovering and developing highly selective kinase drugs for genomically defined diseases, today reported financial results and provided a business update for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015.
"We have made tremendous strides in our transition to a clinical-stage company this quarter with the approval to advance our two lead drug candidates into clinical trials," said Jeffrey Albers, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. "We also debuted promising preclinical data for our RET program, demonstrating our ability to predict mutations that render cancer insensitive to treatment and craft highly selective therapies to target both the primary cancer driver and secondary resistance mutations. The progress of our pipeline, together with the capital raised from our successful IPO in May, positions us to achieve our goals of rapidly advancing multiple programs into clinical trials and expanding our pipeline to deliver much-needed new therapies to patients and drive future growth."
Blueprint Medicines also announced the resignation of Kyle Kuvalanka, Chief Business Officer, who will depart in mid-September. Michael Landsittel, Senior Director of Finance at Blueprint Medicines, will assume the responsibilities of interim Principal Accounting and Financial Officer and will report directly to Mr. Albers.
"Kyle played an integral role in building Blueprint Medicines into the thriving company it is today," said Mr. Albers. "The entire Blueprint Medicines team and Board of Directors are deeply grateful to Kyle for his many contributions and wish him the very best on the next stage of his career."
Second Quarter 2015 and Recent Business Highlights
Platform and Pipeline
- Received FDA authorization to proceed with clinical trials for two drug candidates: In July, Blueprint Medicines announced that the FDA accepted the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) applications to begin Phase 1 clinical trials for BLU-554 in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma and BLU-285 in the treatment of unresectable, treatment-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Following these IND approvals, Blueprint Medicines also filed an IND application for BLU-285 in systemic mastocytosis in August. The Company is on track to achieve a key milestone of initiating multiple Phase 1 clinical trials in 2015.
- Presented first preclinical data for BLU6864, a RET-specific kinase inhibitor: At the EACR-AACR-SIC Special Conference on Anticancer Drug Action and Drug Resistance in June, Blueprint Medicines presented the first preclinical data demonstrating that BLU6864 induced tumor regression in disease models driven by the primary RET fusion and all predicted secondary on-target resistance mutations. RET is a key disease driver in multiple cancers, including thyroid, non-small cell lung, breast and colorectal.
- Published strategy for advancing kinase drug discovery and development: Blueprint Medicines published an overview of its kinase drug discovery and development strategy in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The publication highlights Blueprint Medicines' focus on identifying novel genomic targets and using its proprietary compound library to craft highly selective drugs for new and difficult-to-drug targets.
- Presented preclinical data demonstrating anti-tumor activity of BLU-554 in HCC models: At the 50th International Liver Congress in April, Blueprint Medicines presented new preclinical data showing that its drug candidate BLU-554 induced complete tumor regression in patient-derived xenograft models of HCC which are driven by abnormal signaling of fibroblast growth receptor 4 (FGFR4).
- Presented preclinical data demonstrating anti-tumor activity of BLU-285 in treatment-resistant GIST: At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in April, Blueprint Medicines presented new preclinical data showing that BLU-285 has significant anti-tumor activity in treatment-resistant models of GIST, including inducing complete tumor regression.
Corporate
- Achieved first milestone payment from Alexion: Blueprint Medicines received a $1.8 million milestone payment for the successful achievement of the first pre-defined research milestone in its ongoing rare genetic disease collaboration with Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
- Completed upsized initial public offering: In May, Blueprint Medicines completed an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock at $18.00 per share, raising gross proceeds of approximately $168.6 million, before deducting customary underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.
Second Quarter 2015 Financial Results
- Cash Position: Cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2015 were $193.6 million, compared to $47.2 million as of December 31, 2014. As of May 5, 2015, the Company recorded gross proceeds of $168.6 million from the initial public offering of 9.4 million shares of the Company's common stock.
- Collaboration Revenue: Collaboration revenues were $2.7 million for the second quarter of 2015. This revenue reflects reimbursement from Alexion for work conducted in the second quarter by Blueprint Medicines under the collaboration, as well as a portion of the $15.0 million upfront payment and $1.8 million milestone payment, which will be amortized over the period of the research term.
- R&D Expenses: Research and development expenses were $11.2 million, including non-cash stock-based compensation expenses of $0.9 million, for the second quarter of 2015, compared to $6.8 million, including non-cash stock-based expenses of $0.1 million, for the same period in 2014. The increase was largely due to expenses and increased personnel necessary to advance the Company's two programs into Phase 1 trials in 2015. The increase in expense was also associated with the continued advancement of the Company's discovery pipeline.
- G&A Expenses: General and administrative expenses were $3.8 million, including non-cash stock-based compensation expenses of $1.3 million, in the second quarter of 2015, compared to $1.4 million, including non-cash stock-based compensation expenses of $0.1 million for the same period in 2014.
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