If VRTX wants to be competitive in the future of HCV treatment beyond telaprevir, they are likely going to need some help in the form of an NS5A inhibitor and/or PI IMO. That is unless their two in-licensed Alios nukes alone will suffice, which I guess still remains a possibility at least. I bet they eventually seek out some additional help, though.
Although he could conceivably be bluffing, VRTX’s CEO said on today’s GS webcast that there will flat-out be no new HCV acquisitions (#msg-76346572). When pressed about what he would do if the Alios nukes failed to make the grade, Leiden said VRTX would maximize Incivek’s sales through 2014 and would simply “sit out the second wave” of HCV treatment (i.e. the all-oral phase).
“The efficient-market hypothesis may be the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated in any area of human knowledge!”