IPO Watch: Strong Debut For Blueprint Medicines

(RTTNews) - Shares of Blueprint Medicines Corp. (BPMC) surged in its debut on the Nasdaq after the biotech company raised more cash than it expected in its initial public offering.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based cancer drug developer sold 8.15 million shares of its common stock in an upsized offering at $18.00 per share, raising about $147 million. Blueprint had earlier said it would sell 7.2 million shares in a range of $15 to $17 per share.

The company's shares started trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "BPMC." The stock gained up to 33 percent during the day, but pared most of the gains and closed the day's session at $18.87, up $0.87 or 4.8 percent.

Blueprint Medicines intends to use proceeds from the IPO to fund clinical trials of its drug candidates as well as for new and ongoing research activities.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cowen and Company acted as joint book-running managers of the offering. JMP Securities and Wedbush PacGrow acted as co-managers.

Blueprint is developing a kind of cancer drug called a kinase inhibitor. The company plans to develop highly selective kinase drugs for specifically genomically defined cancer patients.

One of Blueprint's lead drug candidates is BLU-285, for the treatment of tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. The other lead drug candidate is BLU-554, intended to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer.

The company expects to file investigational new drug applications for both the drugs in mid-2015 and initiate Phase 1 clinical trials in mid-2015. In addition, Blueprint Medicines has a rare genetic disease program that is the subject of its collaboration with Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN).

Beneficiaries in Blueprint's IPO are Third Rock Ventures II, L.P, which held a 41.8 percent stake in the company prior to the IPO, and Beacon Bioventures Fund III Limited Partnership, which owned a 13.4 percent stake.

BPMC is currently trading at $19.66, up $0.79 or 4.19 percent on a volume of 116,987 shares.