BlossomHill Therapeutics filed to go public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under ticker BLSM, according to its S-1 filing with the SEC. The San Diego oncology shop hasn’t specified deal terms yet, on top of the $173 million it’s collected in private capital since launching in February 2024.
That’s a thin war chest for the fight it’s picking. Lead asset BH-30643, a macrocyclic EGFR inhibitor, is chasing the same non-small-cell lung cancer market as AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso, which pulled in more than $7 billion in global sales last year and still holds first-line standard-of-care status. J&J’s Rybrevant is parked in the same lane, and the filing itself admits “numerous other companies” are building rivals to BH-30643.
Founder J. Jean Cui knows what a real payday looks like. Her last biotech, Turning Point Therapeutics, sold to Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion, or $76 a share, in 2022. That deal closed on a phase 2 asset nearing approval. This time she’s asking public shareholders to fund a phase 1/2 program years from pivotal data, against a drug already booking more revenue annually than BlossomHill has raised in its entire existence.
The rest of the pipeline doesn’t change the math. BH-30236, a first-in-class CLK inhibitor, is in early leukemia testing, and a preclinical pan-KRAS candidate trails Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib. Investors here are underwriting Cui’s exit history as much as BH-30643’s early data. The filing is easy. Pricing is where this gets tested.
— Diana Kowalski