EUCOPE Member Spotlight: Q&A with Blueprint Medicines

Every month, EUCOPE spotlights a member company and the great work they’re doing to advance the life sciences industry and drive innovation to serve patients better. In November, we spoke with Kenneth Saké – Vice President of International Medical Affairs, Blueprint Medicines.

Tell us about your organisation and its mission and how you drive innovation internally.

Blueprint Medicines is a global precision therapy company inventing life-changing medicines for people with cancer, hematologic disorders, and severe allergic conditions. Applying an approach that is both precise and agile, we create therapies that selectively target genetic drivers, with the goal of treating the underlying cause of the disease and staying one step ahead at all stages of disease. We are proud of our culture grounded in transparency and curiosity and believe this enables us to draw upon a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives to help us stay innovative and solve complex problems.

We leverage our research platform, including world-class drug design capabilities and expertise in molecular targeting, to rapidly and reproducibly translate science into a broad pipeline of precision therapies. Today, we are delivering approved medicines directly to patients in Europe and the United States and work with partners to expand access to our approved medicines in other geographies. We have successfully developed two approved medicines, with a further 14 development candidates in our pipeline.

How do your organization’s activities help patients now and into the future?

Each member of our team holds a shared commitment to transform patients’ lives for the better and extend the lives of as many people living with systemic mastocytosis, cancer, and other serious diseases as possible, giving people more valuable time to contribute to their communities and spend time with their loved ones.

We couldn’t do this work alone and are committed to continuing working with important partners such as Patient Advocacy Groups to strengthen awareness, improve understanding, and advance care of rare diseases like systemic mastocytosis. From a medical and scientific perspective, we develop medical education content and regularly contribute to key scientific meetings and symposia. In addition, we regularly support local patient advocacy programming across Europe.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the life sciences industry today?

There are a number of challenges across the product lifecycle, from drug development to regulatory and access approval. In the area of precision medicines, we are experiencing an increasing complexity. As treatment shifts to more personalized medicines, for example, new diagnosis tools are required. Targeted therapies have the potential to transform patient´s life but it implies that patients need to be identified and diagnosed properly. As we have learned in systemic mastocytosis patients, it can take up to 7 years to get a final diagnosis which further delays access to a proper treatment.

What are the major health policy issues and themes that you are most focused on in 2023?

Our mission is to make real the promise of precision therapy to extend and improve life for as
many people as possible. In this context, our main policy priorities are related to access to innovation and diagnosis. As I said, targeted therapies have the potential to transform patient´s life but it implies that patients need to be identified, diagnosed properly and have access to innovative therapies. We are partnering with multiple stakeholders across EU to address the key issues that could help patients and healthcare professional to accelerate time to diagnosis. Also, we are following the evolution of the EU Pharmaceutical Package. We believe the constructive dialogue and collaboration are essential to develop the incentives and context for companies to continue investing and driving innovation.

What attracted you to join EUCOPE and how can we help you achieve your business goals?

We believe we can go further and faster together. EUCOPE allows organizations like ours to collaborate and learn from other´s experiences so we can step forward – as one unified industry- to create sustainable change and help more patients live longer, healthier lives across Europe.

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For more information about EUCOPE membership

Visit our Benefits of Membership Page, or schedule an introductory call with our Business Development team office@eucope.org