Building a Pipeline of Next-Generation Kinase Inhibitors

Kinase inhibitors have become staples in the arsenal to battle cancer. These medicines can disrupt the cell signaling that drives the growth and spread of tumors. There are more than 30 approved kinase inhibitors today, but they often have dose limiting toxicities, in part because they often lack specificity and can have activity against multiple kinases at once. Blueprint Medicines is seeking to develop next-generation kinase inhibitors that are highly selective to treat genomically-defined cancers and rare diseases. We spoke to Fouad Namouni, president of research and development for Blueprint, about the company’s discovery platform, the large unexplored territory of kinases, and what makes Blueprint’s kinase medicines next-generation.