CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blueprint Medicines
Corporation (NASDAQ: BPMC) today announced leadership transitions
for the company's research and development organization. Effective
as of January 11, 2021, Becker Hewes,
M.D., currently Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, will
succeed Andy Boral, M.D., Ph.D., as
Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Boral will transition to a new role
as Executive Vice President, Clinical Development. With his
promotion, Dr. Hewes will be responsible for clinical development,
clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, translational medicine and
biostatistics. In his new role, Dr. Boral will advise on clinical
development, regulatory and business development strategy across
the company's portfolio. Drs. Hewes and Boral will report to Fouad
Namouni, M.D., President, Research & Development.
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"As our first Chief Medical Officer, Andy has been a key driver
in establishing Blueprint Medicines as a leading precision therapy
company by building a strong clinical organization and advancing
our two lead programs into the clinic and through late-stage
development, culminating in four approvals in 2020. In his new role
focused on clinical and corporate strategy, Andy will support
efforts to optimize our portfolio and bring additional therapies to
patients," said Fouad Namouni, M.D., President, Research &
Development at Blueprint Medicines. "Becker is an experienced
development leader who will build on a strong foundation of
clinical excellence. Since he joined the company last spring,
Becker has already provided critical leadership to our clinical
development programs, including our recent submission of a
supplemental new drug application to the FDA for AYVAKIT™
(avapritinib) for the treatment of advanced systemic
mastocytosis."
In addition, Marion Dorsch,
Ph.D., has notified the company of her intention to resign as the
company's Chief Scientific Officer to pursue other career
opportunities. Her resignation will be effective March 1, 2021, and the company has initiated a
search for her replacement.
Dr. Namouni added, "We're thankful for the major contributions
Marion has made toward building our industry-leading precision
therapy pipeline, including the advancement of two new molecular
entities into clinical trials and the nomination of five
development candidates under her leadership, and we wish her well
in her future endeavors. As we move forward, we plan to deepen our
focus on precision medicine, building on a decade of R&D
innovation, by combining our highly productive scientific platform
with an expanded R&D vision embracing new precision therapy
modalities."
About Becker Hewes
Dr. Hewes brings 20 years of industry and clinical experience in
oncology and hematology, including achieving the approval of three
tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Previously, he served as Blueprint
Medicines' Senior Vice President, Clinical Development from
May 2020 to January 2021. Prior to joining Blueprint
Medicines, Dr. Hewes served as Chief Medical Officer of Repertoire
Immune Medicines (formerly Torque Therapeutics) from February 2017 to May
2020, where he built Repertoire's multidisciplinary clinical
and biomarker team and advanced its lead immuno-oncology programs
into clinical development. From June
2013 to February 2017, Dr.
Hewes served as Executive Director of Translational Clinical
Oncology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research where
he led clinical development and translational medicine efforts for
multiple early-stage oncology programs through clinical
proof-of-concept, including Kisqali® (ribociclib), a targeted
therapy approved to treat breast cancer, and other programs
combining novel therapies. Prior to that, he held roles of
increasing responsibility related to clinical development in
oncology and hematology within AstraZeneca PLC, Genzyme Corporation
and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, including leading registration programs
for Bosulif® (bosutinib) and Torisel® (temsirolimus) for chronic
myelogenous leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma, respectively. Before
joining industry, he conducted immuno-oncology research at the
Emory Vaccine Center while treating patients as a pediatric
oncologist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Hewes holds an M.D. from the
Georgetown University School of
Medicine and a B.S. from Vanderbilt
University.
About Blueprint Medicines
Blueprint Medicines is a global precision therapy company that
invents life-changing therapies for people with cancer and
hematologic disorders. Applying an approach that is both precise
and agile, we create medicines that selectively target genetic
drivers, with the goal of staying one step ahead across stages of
disease. Since 2011, we have leveraged our research platform,
including expertise in molecular targeting and world-class drug
design capabilities, to rapidly and reproducibly translate science
into a broad pipeline of precision therapies. Today, we are
delivering approved medicines directly to patients in the United States and Europe, and we are globally advancing multiple
programs for genomically defined cancers, systemic mastocytosis,
and cancer immunotherapy. For more information, visit
www.BlueprintMedicines.com and follow us on
Twitter (@BlueprintMeds) and LinkedIn.
Trademarks
Blueprint Medicines, AYVAKIT and associated logos are trademarks
of Blueprint Medicines Corporation.
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SOURCE Blueprint Medicines Corporation