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VRTX Stock: The Disappointing News Sending Vertex Pharma Shares Lower

Vertex Pharma (NASDAQ:VRTX) stock is dropping on Friday following the release of results from a Phase 2 clinical trial.

A close-up shot of a hand holding a variety of pills
A close-up shot of a hand holding a variety of pills

Source: Shutterstock

That trial was testing the effectiveness of VX-864. This is a possible treatment for patients suffering from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) with the PiZZ genotype. According to the company, it saw statistical improvement from 2.2 to 2.3 in mean functional alpha-1 antitrypsin levels.

Vertex Pharma also notes that the study was well tolerated by patients. It also points out that the study confirmed its proof of concept for an oral small molecule corrector to promote the proper folding of the mutant Z-AAT protein.

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So what’s the bad news for VRTX stock today? Those results weren’t significant enough to warrant continuing the development of the drug. Vertex Pharma says it will instead focus development on other novel small molecule correctors with the potential to treat patients.

Carmen Bozic, M.D., executive vice president of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs, as well as CMO of Vertex Pharma, said this about the news hitting VRTX stock today.

“Based on these findings, we remain committed to developing transformative treatments for AATD and are working with urgency to translate the learnings from this study to optimize the next set of small molecule correctors so that we can fully realize the potential that this class of molecules may hold for people living with this disease.”

VRTX stock is seeing heavy trading on today’s news. That has some 7 million shares on the move as of this writing. This is a major increase over its daily average trading volume of 1.6 million shares.

VRTX stock was down 9.8% as of Friday morning and is down 14.8% since the start of the year.

Medical news is hot today with there being plenty more to talk about.

InvestorPlace is keeping tabs on the medical market and what stocks are doing today. That includes the most recent news concerning Novan (NASDAQ:NOVN), ChemoCentryx (NASDAQ:CCXI), and Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB). You can learn about those topics at the following links!

More Medical Stock News for Friday

On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

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