What Blaze Bioscience does

Blaze Bioscience, Inc. is a Seattle-based, privately held biotechnology company founded in 2010 that develops and intends to commercialize products enabling surgeons to visualize tumor tissue in real time during cancer surgery. Its core platform, Tumor Paint®, pairs tozuleristide (BLZ-100), an investigational fluorescent imaging agent built from a chlorotoxin–indocyanine green conjugate, with the CANVAS® imaging system to highlight malignant tissue under near-infrared light during resection. The intended use cases include achieving clear margins in breast-conserving surgery, glioma resection, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and skin cancer procedures. The lead clinical program targets pediatric central nervous system tumors, where the FDA granted Fast Track Designation in April 2020 and the pivotal Phase 2/3 trial completed enrollment in November 2022; Phase 1 data have been published in peer-reviewed journals including Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Neurosurgery, JAMA Otolaryngology, and Cancer Research.

The company is pre-revenue and does not yet have an approved product or an active Expanded Access Program. The future revenue model combines pharmaceutical product sales to hospitals and surgical centers (planned via a specialized field sales force following FDA approval) with potential technology licensing and royalty arrangements, and the company has publicly opened a partnering channel to expand Tumor Paint applications into cancer surgery, high-risk surveillance, and screening. Capital formation has been sustained through multiple venture rounds totaling roughly $55 million between 2012 and 2019, including a $5 million raise in February 2019, supporting clinical development and CMC infrastructure. Leadership is led by President and CEO Steven Daly, with scientific founder James Olson, MD, PhD (Seattle Children's / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) anchoring the scientific credibility of the platform.

Customer concentration is undefined commercially because no product is approved; the company's operating geographies are described as the United States, with headquarters at 530 Fairview Avenue North, Suite 1400, Seattle, Washington, and an 11–50 employee footprint. Blaze has no disclosed AI/ML capabilities and relies on its proprietary fluorescent chemistry and intraoperative imaging hardware as the source of competitive differentiation rather than on data-driven or model-based analytics.

Name

Blaze Bioscience

Legal name

Blaze Bioscience, Inc.

Website

https://blazebioscience.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Blaze Bioscience is a Seattle-based, privately held clinical-stage biotech developing Tumor Paint® (tozuleristide) and the CANVAS® imaging system to give surgeons real-time intraoperative fluorescence visualization of tumor tissue during cancer resection procedures.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Surgical Oncology Imaging

NAICS

Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414), Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (3254), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834), Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals (Radioligand/Targeted Radionuclide Therapy) (HLAIAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Surgical Oncology (HLAKAFAG), Neuro-Oncology (HLAKAFAH)

Keywords

• Fluorescent imaging agents
• Intraoperative tumor visualization
• Cancer surgery technology
• Biopharmaceutical imaging drugs
• Clinical stage biotechnology

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Pharmaceutical Product Sales: Pre-revenue clinical stage biotech company. Future revenue expected from sale of tozuleristide (BLZ-100) as a fluorescent tumor visualization agent for cancer surgery. The product will be sold to hospitals and surgical centers for use during tumor resection procedures.
2. Technology Licensing: The company holds proprietary Tumor Paint® technology and CANVAS® imaging system. Potential for licensing partnerships or collaborations to expand applications for cancer surgery, high-risk surveillance and screening.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Blaze Bioscience develops and is commercializing Tumor Paint®, an investigational fluorescent imaging agent (tozuleristide / BLZ-100) that conjugates a scorpion-derived chlorotoxin peptide with indocyanine green (ICG) to make tumor tissue fluoresce under near-infrared light during surgery. The drug is administered to patients prior to surgery and visualized intraoperatively using the company's CANVAS® real-time fluorescence imaging system, allowing oncology surgeons to distinguish malignant tissue from healthy tissue, identify residual cancer on cavity walls, and improve achievement of clear margins in procedures such as breast-conserving surgery, brain tumor resection, and other solid-tumor operations.

Product overview

Blaze Bioscience is a biotechnology company developing Tumor Paint® technology, which consists of two integrated products: tozuleristide (BLZ-100), an investigational fluorescent tumor-targeting imaging agent, and the CANVAS® imaging system. These products work together to enable real-time intraoperative visualization of tumor tissue, allowing surgeons to see and remove cancer during the initial surgery while distinguishing malignant tissue from healthy tissue.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Tumor Paint®: Proprietary tumor visualization technology platform including tozuleristide (BLZ-100) for real-time intraoperative tumor detection
• CANVAS®

Products and services

• Tumor Paint® (tozuleristide / BLZ-100) Investigational fluorescent imaging agent composed of a chlorotoxin peptide conjugated to indocyanine green (ICG); administered to patients prior to surgery so that tumor tissue fluoresces under near-infrared light and can be visualized in real time by surgeons, enabling distinction of tumor from healthy tissue and improved achievement of clear margins in cancer resection procedures.
• CANVAS® Imaging System Real-time intraoperative fluorescence imaging system used in conjunction with tozuleristide (BLZ-100) to visualize tumor tissue during cancer surgery, allowing surgeons to detect residual cancer on cavity walls and improve complete resection rates.

Quantifiable outcome

• Real-time visualization of breast carcinoma in pathology specimens from patients receiving tozuleristide
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Collaborative Partners (Seeking)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBlaze is actively seeking collaborations to expand applications of tozuleristide and Tumor Paint technology for cancer surgery, high-risk surveillance and screening. The company is open to partnerships that advance the clinical development and commercialization of their tumor visualization technology.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Lumicell: Lumicell develops an intraoperative fluorescence imaging system (Lumicell DVS) combined with a tumor-targeting imaging agent to detect residual cancer in real time during surgery — directly comparable mechanism and breast-cancer surgical use case as Blaze's Tumor Paint.
• Perimeter Medical Imaging AI: Perimeter develops wide-field optical coherence tomography and AI-driven image analysis for intraoperative margin assessment in breast-conserving surgery — competing in the same clinical workflow that Blaze's Tumor Paint targets.

Emerging players

• Avelas Biosciences: Avelas is developing fluorescent imaging agents for cancer surgery visualization, paralleling Blaze's Tumor Paint approach with a focus on tumor-targeted intraoperative fluorescence.

Broad incumbents

• Stryker: Stryker acquired Novadaq and now markets the SPY fluorescence imaging platform used in surgical visualization, making it a broad incumbent in intraoperative fluorescence imaging overlapping Blaze's clinical setting.
• Karl Storz: Karl Storz is a leading endoscopy and surgical imaging vendor with near-infrared fluorescence capabilities integrated into its visualization platforms — overlapping Blaze's intraoperative imaging use cases.
• Carl Zeiss Meditec: Zeiss Meditec supplies surgical microscopy and intraoperative fluorescence imaging solutions, including for neurosurgical oncology workflows directly comparable to tozuleristide's CNS tumor application.
• Medtronic: Medtronic is a broad neurosurgery and surgical-tools incumbent with imaging-adjacent offerings relevant to the CNS tumor resection setting Blaze targets with its pediatric CNS pivotal program.

Others

• Leica Microsystems (Danaher): Leica manufactures surgical and fluorescence microscopy platforms used in operating-room visualization, making it an adjacent enabling technology provider to Blaze's intraoperative imaging approach.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Blaze Bioscience