NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Start-up Blueprint Medicines today announced it has closed on a $40 million Series A round.
The round was led by Third Rock Ventures, and proceeds will be used to develop new cancer therapies using Blueprint's proprietary compound library and Insights-to-Validation platform that targets molecular drivers of cancer "and emerging resistance mechanisms unique to certain cancer patients," the firm said.
Based in Cambridge, Mass., Blueprint was founded earlier this year by Nicholas Lydon, Brian Druker, Chris Varma, David Armistead, and Third Rock Ventures. Varma is the president and CEO, while Armistead serves as chief scientific officer.
In a statement, Lydon said that medicine is at a crossroads where drug discovery and development could lead to a "transformative shift" in the treatment of cancer. "By leveraging the growing body of molecular and cancer genome data and focusing on patients with clearly defined molecular aberrations, Blueprint Medicines is positioned to develop the selective cancer treatments that will make this transformation possible," he said.