DUBLIN – Blueprint Medicines Corp. blew away whatever market jitters were apparent earlier this week by raising $147 million in a heavily oversubscribed and upsized IPO, which it priced at $18 per share, above its indicative range of $15 to $17 per share.

The stock, which began trading on Nasdaq Thursday under the ticker BPMC, rose more than 30 percent during early trading to reach a high of $23.89, though it had fallen to just 87 cents above the IPO price by market close.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based firm issued about 8.1 million new shares. It originally sought about $115 million by issuing 7.2 million shares. It's the third biggest biotech IPO on Nasdaq so far this year, bested only by the $228 million raised by Paris-based CAR T-cell developer Cellectis SA in March and by the $185 million raised by Philadelphia-based Spark Therapeutics Inc. in January. It could soon drop another place in the rankings, however, as another European contender, Adaptimmune Ltd., of Abingdon, UK, is currently looking to raise around $183 million.

Based on its IPO price, Blueprint has a market cap of $465 million and has raised $262 million since its formation in 2011 by Third Rock Ventures and a trio of scientists – Nicholas Lydon, Brian Druker and Charles Sawyers – who are closely associated with the development of Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis AG), the most emblematic and successful tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Blueprint Medicine's mission is to uncover the next generation of Gleevec-like cancer drugs that combine exquisite levels of efficacy and selectivity with an excellent safety profile. It is marrying a deep understanding of the human kinome with cancer genomics in order to identify novel kinase inhibitors that selectively target driver mutations in specific cancer settings.

The company is still in preclinical research, but its first programs are due to enter the clinic this year. Its lead molecules include BLU-285, a selective inhibitor of the KIT exon 17 mutation, which is associated with 95 percent of systemic mastocytosis cases and with gastrointestinal stromal tumors that progress on current therapies, and BLU-554, a selective inhibitor of the FGFR4 signal pathway, a driver of about one-third of all hepatocellular carcinomas. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 13, 2014.)

Its IPO reflects the changing risk profile of drug development, according to one of Blueprint's private equity investors, Nextech Invest Ltd., an oncology-focused fund based in Zurich, Switzerland, which led its $25 million series B round and which also participated in the firm's $50 million series C mezzanine round last year as well as in the IPO. "You can develop drugs in a very targeted way," Nextech partner Thilo Schroeder told BioWorld Today. "The FDA has changed the regulatory path and is willing to support companies that have exciting programs with accelerated approvals."

For investors, that also alters the risk profile. Since 2007, Nextech has invested in 14 companies, from which it has already completed three full and two partial exits, as well as four IPOs. It is no longer relying on one "home run" and one or two deals that also return cash to make a fund profitable, Schroeder said. "It's a great time to be in the market."

Nextech is dismissive of any suggestion that biotech is now in a bubble phase. "This year, the IPO market hasn't really been buoyant," founding partner and CEO Alfred Scheidegger told BioWorld Today. Investors are now more selective about what they'll back, he said. And in some areas that have attracted very aggressive valuations – such as cancer immunotherapy – a correction could be in the offing. "It seems the valuations we're seeing today assume everything is going to go well. That's not always the case in science," Schroeder said.

Although European-based, Nextech is able to access high-quality U.S. deals through a scientific advisory board of top-tier cancer experts based on both sides of the Atlantic. It includes Blueprint co-founder Charles Sawyers, for example.

"We have seen Blueprint from day one, and we knew the company before we invested," Schroeder said.

Nextech is currently in the throes of raising its third fund, having announced a $40 million first close last fall. It aims to secure $100 million in total this year. It has already made three investments: Cambridge-based Jounce Therapeutics Inc., Kura Oncology Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., and Peloton Therapeutics Inc., of Dallas. "The fund is taking shape, and the fundraising is continuing," Scheidegger said.

Blueprint's successful debut will have done no harm to that effort.