When Jeff Albers joined Blueprint Medicines in 2014, the private company was a clinical-stage biotech. Now, the helmsman is handing down the reins after steering the firm through an IPO and two drug launches.
Blueprint is lifting chief operating officer Kate Haviland to succeed Albers as president and CEO, effective April 4, the Massachusetts company said Wednesday. The current chief executive will transition to an executive chairman role through 2022 and then continue as chairman.
Upon hearing about the change to an eight-year CEO, Blueprint investors sent the company’s stock price on Nasdaq down by more than 11% Wednesday morning.
One possible reason for the stock move? A transition of top leadership could be interpreted as reduced likelihood of a takeover. Blueprint’s capabilities in precision oncology draw comparison to Array Biopharma, which was acquired by Pfizer for $11.4 billion in 2019.
Albers drove several milestones at Blueprint since taking over from Third Rock Ventures partner and company co-founder Alexis Borisy in 2014. The cancer specialist went public in an upsized IPO in 2015. A collaboration with Roche ensued in 2016 featuring two kinase targets, MAP4K1 and another undisclosed target. The two firms included then-unapproved RET-altered cancer drug Gavreto in a global development and commercialization deal in 2020.
Blueprint became a commercial-stage company in early 2020 with an FDA nod for Ayvakit for patients with rare gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) carrying a PDGFRα exon 18 mutation. Last year, the drug added advanced systemic mastocytosis to its label.
Toward the end of 2021, Blueprint shelled out $250 million upfront to acquire Lengo Therapeutics. The deal gave Blueprint LNG-451, a preclinical drug for EGFR exon 20 insertion non-small cell lung cancer, to complement its existing EGFR assets.
“With a foundation of R&D and commercial success and an exciting pipeline of therapeutic candidates positioned to drive the company's next phase of transformational growth, it is the right time for me to transition leadership to Kate and our outstanding executive team,” Albers said in a statement.
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Haviland joined Blueprint in 2016 as chief business officer and came to her current role in 2019. Her chief operating officer position will be filled by current chief commercial officer Christina Rossi. Before Blueprint, Haviland held an oncology leadership role at Idera Pharmaceuticals and served in commercial development positions at Sarepta Therapeutics and PTC Therapeutics.
Haviland has been Blueprint’s deal mastermind, driving the two Roche collaborations and the Lengo acquisitions, as well as licensing agreements with CStone Pharmaceuticals and Zai Lab in China, plus a deal with Ipsen around an ALK2 inhibitor.
Looking ahead, Blueprint expects a mid-2022 readout from the pivotal PIONEER trial, which could expand Ayvakit into non-advanced systemic mastocytosis. The indication could mean $787 million in combined U.S. and EU peak sales, SVB Leerink analyst Andrew Berens wrote in an October note. By comparison, the advanced form represents an opportunity just short of $1 billion across the two geographies.