A little optimism from Vertex (VRTX)
OK, so I'm sick of writing about mistakes and bad news this week. Who better to counter all the bad stuff I've written about in the last couple days than Vertex Pharmaceuticals. VRTX, one of only two stocks in my portfolio to double this year so far (the other being Google, no surprise) released some more good news today.
This is already baked into the stock, but their most critical drug candidate is moving into Phase II following more great results that indicate it is hugely effective against Hepatitis C in just 14 days of treatment. The phase II trial will be examining a possible twelve week treatment cycle that they're thinking might actually cure HCV -- more info in their release, and you can visit their website to hear the more detailed webcast if you're interested. I've written about Vertex before and in more detail, and everything I said then still represents my opinion today -- I'm not buying any more at the moment, but if I didn't have a full position yet I would certainly consider it.
Vertex has doubled already this year because of the great results of their first phase 1 study on this drug, which is currently called VX-950, and the good news continues. Regardless of the fact that this has already doubled, it's worth thinking about the fact that this disease which affects millions of people has no appealing or really effective treatments at this point, and it's possible that the addressable market for HCV will approach 10 Billion dollars annually by the time it's approved (assuming it is approved) in a few years. And in this case unlike many others, we get to see fast-moving trials thanks to the relatively short treatment cycle.
Be wary -- there are possible competitors in the pipeline, notably one from (if I remember correctly) Schering Plough. In my opinion, the market is more than large enough for several drugs if they're effective, but Vertex has burned folks before so any hint of bad news could drop the shares pretty fast.
This is already baked into the stock, but their most critical drug candidate is moving into Phase II following more great results that indicate it is hugely effective against Hepatitis C in just 14 days of treatment. The phase II trial will be examining a possible twelve week treatment cycle that they're thinking might actually cure HCV -- more info in their release, and you can visit their website to hear the more detailed webcast if you're interested. I've written about Vertex before and in more detail, and everything I said then still represents my opinion today -- I'm not buying any more at the moment, but if I didn't have a full position yet I would certainly consider it.
Vertex has doubled already this year because of the great results of their first phase 1 study on this drug, which is currently called VX-950, and the good news continues. Regardless of the fact that this has already doubled, it's worth thinking about the fact that this disease which affects millions of people has no appealing or really effective treatments at this point, and it's possible that the addressable market for HCV will approach 10 Billion dollars annually by the time it's approved (assuming it is approved) in a few years. And in this case unlike many others, we get to see fast-moving trials thanks to the relatively short treatment cycle.
Be wary -- there are possible competitors in the pipeline, notably one from (if I remember correctly) Schering Plough. In my opinion, the market is more than large enough for several drugs if they're effective, but Vertex has burned folks before so any hint of bad news could drop the shares pretty fast.
This article posted by One Guy @ 11/11/2005 03:26:00 PM 0 comments
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