Weakness In Vertex Stock Seen As Buying Opportunity

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) stock is falling on Tuesday after the company’s pain data overshadowed strong second-quarter earnings.

See real-time price for VRTX stock here.

On Monday, the company released data from the Phase 2study evaluating the safety and efficacy of its investigational selective NaV1.8 pain signal inhibitor, VX-993, in treating acute pain after bunionectomy surgery. Treatment with VX-993 did not result in a statistically significant improvement on the primary endpoint of the time-weighted Sum of the Pain Intensity Difference from zero to 48 hours (SPID48) compared to placebo.

“This proof-of-concept study was powered to test whether VX-993 would result in higher clinical efficacy than previously demonstrated with the NaV1.8 pathway,” said Carmen Bozic, Vertex’s chief medical officer, and executive vice president of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs.

“Based on these results, as well as the totality of preclinical data and results from our previous bunionectomy clinical studies, VX-993 is not expected to be superior to our existing NaV1.8 inhibitors, and therefore, we will not be advancing it as monotherapy in acute pain,” ...