Vertex loss widens, drug application nears

Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:32pm EDT

* Loss widens as costs of telaprevir studies grow

* Expects to seek telaprevir approval in coming weeks

NEW YORK Oct 25 (Reuters) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals on Monday reported a wider third-quarter loss as it stepped up research on its promising experimental treatment for hepatitis C, and said it plans to seek U.S. approval for the medicine in coming weeks.

Vertex (VRTX.O) said it had a net loss $209 million, or $1.04 per share, in the third quarter, as it spent heavily on mid-stage and late-stage trials of its telaprevir treatment for the liver disease. That compared with a net loss of $149.6 million, or 84 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 93 cents per share in the most recent quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Vertex reported third quarter revenue of $23.8 million. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $30.3 million.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, which is also developing treatments for inflammation, cystic fibrosis, and other diseases, said it continues to expect a net loss of $750 million for full-year 2010. Excluding special items, it expects a loss of $600 million.

Telaprevir is widely expected to become a game changer in the treatment of hepatitis C, which can severely damage the liver over a period of decades after infection with the virus. Some analysts believe the drug could eventually garner annual sales of more than $4 billion.

The lofty expectations are based on telaprevir's ability to cure a far higher percentage of patients than the tough to tolerate standard drugs, and its potential to cut the current 48-week treatment duration in half when used in combination with interferon and ribavirin.

In September, Vertex said telaprevir in a pivotal late-stage trial cured 65 percent of patients who had previously failed to be cured by standard drugs.

Telaprevir, from a new class of hepatitis C treatments, is an antiviral drug that is expected to compete with a similar medicine being developed by Merck & Co (MRK.N) called boceprevir. But analysts have been virtually unanimous in their belief that telaprevir is the superior medicine.

Merck has completed phase III trials. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

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Also See:
-- Vertex Quarter Blemished by Hep C Hiccup
-- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Reports Third Quarter 2010 Financial Results and Highlights Progress in Hepatitis C and Cystic Fibrosis Development Programs