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http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/02

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Vertex Feeling Growing Pains

By Todd Wallack
November 2, 2007

Over the past 18 years, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. has grown to occupy space in eight buildings across Cambridge, including a former cow barn and another structure built on a site where Vertex employees once played roller hockey.

But it's not enough. As Vertex accelerates development of a high-profile treatment for the hepatitis C virus, the biotech company has embarked on the biggest hiring push in its history, forcing it to scout for even more space.

Since the start of 2005, Vertex has increased its Cambridge workforce by nearly two-thirds to about 850 employees, with almost 1,100 employees worldwide. It is aggressively trying to fill 100 additional openings - with hires coming on board virtually every week. Vertex executives are even considering building a campus in the Boston area.

…In the meantime, Vertex is hiring. Though the company has long been respected for its chemistry and drug-discovery unit, it has never brought a drug to market itself. So, for the first time, Vertex must hire people skilled in manufacturing, marketing, later-stage clinical trials, and other areas of the drug business.

"We have had to build half of a company that we didn't have to have before," said Lisa Kelly, Vertex's senior vice president of human resources.

Under a collaboration deal with Johnson & Johnson signed last year, J&J's Janssen Pharmaceutica unit received the right to market telaprevir in Europe and other parts of the world, but Vertex retained exclusive North American rights.

Kelly said Vertex is trying a number of tacks to find new hires, including using outside recruitment firms, putting signs on taxis, advertising nationwide for talent, and offering employees $2,000 referral bonuses.

It has already conducted 1,000 interviews this year, but Kelly said she'd hire even more people if she could.

"It's tough because we are competing against a lot of big pharma companies," she said. "We are just not hiring fast enough. It doesn't mean we don't have the jobs."

Vertex chief executive Joshua Boger said he doesn't see the growth slowing anytime soon, forcing the company to add more office and lab space.

"Space is a happy problem," Boger said. "We need more space by the end of next year."

In the short run, he said, Vertex is likely to lease space in another building in Cambridge, just as it has done for years when it needed more room.

But as Vertex continues to expand, executives say they are also considering building a campus (or leasing an existing one) somewhere in the area to replace its current quiltwork of office space. The company currently occupies about 500,000 square feet scattered around Cambridge, in addition to having operations in San Diego and England.

Al Vaz, who oversees Vertex's facilities, said it could take a year or more to make a decision.

"We really haven't focused on one solution or the other," said Vaz, Vertex's vice president of facilities and operations. "It's hard to say because we are in such early planning stages."
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