Vertex gains as AbbVie ends cystic fibrosis development program
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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) is up 2% in Thursday morning trading after AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) announced that it was terminating its cystic fibrosis ("CF") program citing poor results.
AbbVie (ABBV) made the announcement during its Q1 2023 earnings call.
Vertex (VRTX) dominates the market for CF treatments with several medicines and combination therapies, including Trikafta (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor), its best-selling drug.
AbbVie (ABBV) was in phase 2 of its CF program. Its candidate was a combination of one potentiator and two corrector molecules targeting the CF transmembrane regulator.
The ending of the program is not that surprising considering that in April 2022, during its Q1 2022 earnings call, AbbVie (ABBV) management said that efficacy results from an interim analysis of phase 2 data did not meet prespecified criteria for advancement.
AbbVie (ABBV), which saw its Q1 2023 results miss on the bottom line, is down 8% in Thursday morning trading.
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