Vertex narrows 2Q loss, but misses forecast
Friday August 1, 8:36 am ET
Vertex Pharmaceuticals' 2nd-quarter loss narrows, but falls short of Wall Street forecasts
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said late Thursday its second-quarter loss narrowed on a large milestone payment for development of its hepatitis C drug candidate telaprevir.
The company lost $91.3 million, or 66 cents per share, compared with a loss of $117.8 million, or 91 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 82 percent to $69.4 million from $38.2 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 60 cents per share on revenue of $68.7 million.
The company said it received a $45 million milestone payment from partner Johnson & Johnson for starting a late-stage study on telaprevir.
"Chronic hepatitis C is a major global unmet medical need with many patients at an increased risk for cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer and early death," Vertex President and Chief Executive Joshua Boger said in a statement.
He said the company continues to work on developing a multipronged program for telaprevir, which includes two late-stage studies including patients with various treatment backgrounds.
"With our commitment to addressing this broad need, we are working to establish a profile for telaprevir that has the potential to shorten treatment duration and increase sustained viral response rates for treatment-naive patients, and also the potential to provide a new treatment option for patients who failed to achieve sustained viral response with a prior course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy."
The company also said increasing costs for its development program will mean a wider-than-expected full-year loss. It now expects a loss between $450 million and $470 million, excluding charges, which is wider than prior guidance of $380 million to $410 million.
Vertex shares closed at $34.50 Thursday.
surf's up......crikey
