Vertex raises $155M to back telaprevir

Vertex (VRTX) has completed a pair of financing deals that will bring in $155 million to help push its closely-watched hepatitis C drug telaprevir toward an approval. Analysts have high hopes for telaprevir, one of the hottest drugs now in late-stage development. And those hopes helped Vertex gain $120 million from the sale of corporate debt and another $35 million in exchange for European market milestones on the drug. And Vertex doesn't have to repay the money if it doesn't earn the milestones. Vertex is planning on gaining an FDA approval for telaprevir in the second half of 2010. Report