Company: Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($VRTX)
Based: Cambridge, MA
R&D budget: *$637.4M (€463.6M)
Change from 2009: +15.8%
Net revenue spent on R&D: 444%

Vertex might splurge on R&D, but you can't argue with the payback. After spending billions of dollars to advance candidates in its pipeline over the past couple decades, the Cambridge, MA-based company's No. 1 drug, Incivek (telaprevir), finally crossed the finish line this year with key market approvals in the U.S. and Europe. The commercial launch of the hepatitis C drug could be one of the most successful ever, according to an analyst note from Leerink Swann.

This all bodes well for funding future R&D projects at Vertex. With Incivek on the market, the R&D group already has another potential winner on its hands with VX-770, which showed the potential to be a game-changer for certain patients with cystic fibrosis in late-stage clinical trials reported this year. The company filed for U.S. and European approval of the CF drug last month. There's also a slate of promising mid-stage projects under way. Its JAK3 inhibitor offers a potential oral drug against rheumatoid arthritis, now commonly treated with injected meds; and its VX-765 candidate for epilepsy is poised for a Phase IIb study beginning soon.

Yet the development team at Vertex can't get too comfy. Earlier-stage hepatitis C programs from other biotechs have been impressing analysts with quick cure rates and simple treatment regimens. For instance, Pharmasset's experimental PSI-7977 has captured lots of press with its interferon-free approach to wiping out hepatitis C. Vertex is aiming for its own all-oral cocktails of therapies for the liver-damaging disease, and in June it struck a licensing pact with Alios BioPharma to get more shots on goal in this area.