Vertex Cuts 15 Percent Of Its Workforce On Plunging Hep C Sales

How competitive is the market for hepatitis C treatments? In May 2011, Vertex Pharmaceuticals won FDA approval to sell its Incivek medication to treat people who have the most common strain. The drug became one of the fastest-selling medicines ever, generating more than $450 million in the fourth quarter that year, and helped Vertex become a hot stock on Wall Street.  Now, Vertex is cutting 370 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce, thanks to plummeting Incivek sales. The drugmaker acknowledged today that the number of hepatitis C patients being treated with Incivek has dropped quickly as a new generation of medicines is about to arrive. Incivek sales in the third quarter totaled $86 million, far less than the $124 million that had been expected on Wall Street. The reversal of fortunes comes in the wake of forthcoming competition coming from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), AbbVie (ABBV), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and, notably, Gilead Sciences (GILD). Last week, an FDA panel unanimously recommended its sofosbuvir which, if approved for marketing by the agency, would be the first oral treatment, in combination with another pill, for two other strains of hepatitis C.   “As new medicines for hepatitis C near approval, fewer people are starting treatment with Incivek, and as a result, we are reducing our workforce supporting this medicine,” Vertex ceo Jeff Leiden says in a statement in which he says emphasis will be placed on developing the Kalydeco cystic fibrosis treatment an...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs