Vertex Pharmaceuticals
 | |
| Type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: VRTX |
| Industry | Pharmaceuticals (Biopharmaceuticals & Biotherapeutics)[1] |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Key people |
Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, President and CEO Stuart A. Arbuckle, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Kenneth L. Horton, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Lisa Kelly-Croswell, Senior Vice President, Human Resources Peter Mueller, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Global Research and Development, and Chief Scientific Officer Megan Pace, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications Amit K. Sachdev, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Public Policy Ian F. Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |
| Products | Product Pipeline |
| Revenue |
 US$1.4 billion (2011) |
| Website | www.vrtx.com |
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Vertex was founded in 1989 by Joshua Boger [2] and Kevin J. Kinsella.[3] Vertex was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry.
By 2004, its product pipeline focused on viral infections, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, and cancer. It maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and two research facilities, in San Diego, California, and Oxford, England. The company's beginnings were profiled by Barry Werth in the 1994 book The Billion-Dollar Molecule. In 2009, the company had about 1,800 employees, including 1,200 of in the Boston area.[2]
Telaprevir
In May 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug telaprevir (Incivek), an oral treatment for hepatitis C marketed by Vertex. Development and commercialization of telaprevir is shared with Johnson & Johnson for European distribution and Mitsubishi for Asia. Telaprevir is a protease inhibitor.[4]
Ivacaftor
January 31, 2012, Vertex gained FDA approval[5] of the first drug, ivacaftor (Kalydeco),[6] to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis rather than the symptoms, in patients 6 years or older who have the G551D gene mutation. In the US, 30,000 people have cystic fibrosis. About 4% of those, or 1,200, have the G551D gene mutation. Vertex is marketing the drug at $294,000 a year per patient. Vertex also is studying ivacaftor in combination with another drug (lumacaftor[7]) for the most common mutation in CF, known as F508del, and expects the first set of results in 2012. Vertex worked for 13 years with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to develop the drug.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ "Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated". Hoover's. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Weisman, Robert (24 April 2011). "Rearranging the Corporate DNA". Boston Sunday Globe. p. G1. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule
- ↑ "Approval of Incivek (telaprevir), a direct acting antiviral drug (DAA) to treat hepatitis C (HCV)" (Press release). Food and Drug Administration. 24 May 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
- ↑ "FDA approves Kalydeco to treat rare form of cystic fibrosis" (Press release). Food and Drug Administration. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- ↑ "KALYDECO™ (ivacaftor) tablets". Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- ↑ "VX-809 (Cystic Fibrosis)". Vertex Pharmaceuticals. 7 September 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- ↑ Edney, Anna (2 February 2012). "Vertex Wins Approval for Kalydeco to Treat Cystic Fibrosis". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- Annual Report. Vertex Pharmaceuticals. 15 March 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- "Vertex Completes New Drug Application for Telaprevir for Hepatitis C" (Press release). Vertex Pharmaceuticals. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
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