Vertex exceeded all Wall Street projections for sales of its new anti-hepatitis C agent Incivek when it reported revenues of $74.5 million. This was more than double the consensus estimates of $31 million and were achieved in a period of only 6 weeks post-market approval. WOW!
Incivek has shown in clinical trials that when it is added to a couple standard treatments, it can double the cure rate to about 80 percent of patients, while cutting the course of treatment in half, to about six months. Many patients are lining up to get treatment for the first time for this chronic liver damaging disease, since the cure rate is so much higher, and the Vertex drug enables patients to shorten the time they must endure the flu-like side effects of the standard drugs. See Xconomy.
See what can happen if you deliver a novel therapeutic for an unmet need that really delivers the goods in the clinic? Patients like it. Payers like it. Wall Street and investors like it.
Posted by Bruce Lehr July 29th 2011.
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