Blueprint Medicines has captured the magic and whimsy of biotechnology: It’s got about a dozen or so one-foot high gnome statues in residence, or so reports Boston Business Journal:
On a tour of the headquarters, CEO Jeff Albers explained the gnomes as a kind of employee recognition program thought up by Chief Scientific Officer Christoph Lengauer based on the “gnome” in the biotech’s main biological focus, the body’s cell signaling pathway called the “kinome.”
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Indeed, it’s a kinome-centric company: Developing kinase inhibitors – similar to the blockbuster cancer drug Gleevec, which many of Blueprint’s founders worked on before it was sold to Novartis.
Just about a year ago, Blueprint Medicines raised $169 million in Massachusetts’ largest biotech IPO. The Boston Business Journal caught up with the Third Rock-backed company on its plans and pipeline. Blueprint Medicines has launched three clinical trials: Treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, mastocytosis and treatment-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
It projects that in four years or so, it’ll have its first orphan cancer drug on the market. At present, it plans on bringing one drug to clinical trial each year moving forward.
In the Boston Business Journal interview, Albers talks about how Blueprint Medicines’ successful IPO has helped shield it from the current market downturn – it was really smart timing, after all:
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“If you told me, when we went public, that we’d be, a year later, the financial markets would be where they are and we’d be sitting where we are — this is about as good as I could hope,” he said. “I’m every bit as excited about what the next year, two three years will bring as I was about a year ago. I feel pretty lucky.”