{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Approved","title":"Blueprint Medicines: Chasing Gleevec to a $9B Allergy Drug","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":8981,"description":"Blueprint Medicines was built to find the next Gleevec-style cancer drug. It ended up pivoting to allergic disease instead, and selling to Sanofi for $9B. This is the platform, the pivot, and who got paid.\nBlueprint Medicines set out to be the natural sequel to Gleevec: a company founded by two of the scientists behind that landmark cancer drug, built to order by Third Rock Ventures' \"venture creation\" model, with a proprietary kinase-inhibitor library designed to drug the 517 other broken molecular switches Gleevec couldn't touch.\nA decade later, Sanofi paid roughly $9 billion for the company... just not for a cancer drug. Blueprint's blockbuster asset, avapritinib (AYVAKIT), found its real market almost by accident: indolent systemic mastocytosis, a debilitating, often-undiagnosed mast-cell disease that took patients years to get diagnosed and had no approved treatment.\nIn this episode, we trace two threads at once: the science of designing truly selective kinase inhibitors, and the venture capital philosophy -- company creation, not just company funding -- that built Blueprint from a whiteboard sketch into a platform biotech. We cover the near-death Series B, the accidental discovery that opened up mastocytosis, the GAVRETO partnership that fell apart against a faster competitor, the Sanofi negotiation (CVRs and all), and the wide gap between what the venture firm and hired executives made versus what the founding scientists -- like Gleevec's co-inventor Nick Lydon -- walked away with. We end covering the efforts of Blueprint diaspora to create a new model of seed investing: Curie Bio. \nFeaturing interviews with:Alexis Borisy: Former Blueprint CEO/Chairman; founding chairman, Curie.BioChristoph Lengauer: Founding CSO, Blueprint Medicines; Chief Drug Hunter, Curie.BioErica Evans: Former VP Biology, Blueprint Medicines; SVP, Curie.BioTim Guzi: Former Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Blueprint MedicinesDr. Charles Sawyers, M.D. — Academic co-founder, Blueprint...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xbQufpFbhRau2U4ClIm4xzSaMv0jHm9xAp7Oakfo6XA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zMmM2/ZjdmYzNmMTM4ODMx/NjkxMDlmNGQ3ODY2/YjFjMy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}