Vertex Pharmaceuticals 10-Q 2023-09-30

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

☒ QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

FOR THE QUARTERLY PERIOD ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO

Commission file number 000-19319

____________________________________________

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Massachusetts

(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

50 Northern Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

(Address of principal executive offices)

04-3039129

(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

02210

(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (617) 341-6100

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED

FORM 10-Q

FOR THE QUARTER ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Vertex,” “we,” “us,” and “our” as used in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q refer to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a Massachusetts corporation, and its subsidiaries.

“Vertex®,” “KALYDECO®,” “ORKAMBI®,” “SYMDEKO®,” “SYMKEVI®,” “TRIKAFTA®” and “KAFTRIO®” are registered trademarks of Vertex. Other brands, names and trademarks contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are the property of their respective owners.

We use the brand name for our products when we refer to the product that has been approved and with respect to the indications on the approved label. Otherwise, including in discussions of our development programs, we refer to our compounds by their scientific (or generic) name or VX developmental designation.

Part I. Financial Information

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income

(in millions, except per share amounts)(unaudited)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income

(in millions)(unaudited)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in millions, except share data)(unaudited)

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OVERVIEW

We are a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases, with a focus on specialty markets. We have four approved medicines that treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (“CF”), a life-threatening genetic disease, and we continue to focus on developing additional treatments for CF. Beyond CF, we have a pipeline that includes mid- and late-stage clinical programs in sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia, acute and neuropathic pain, APOL1-mediated kidney disease, type 1 diabetes, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and earlier-stage programs in diseases such as muscular dystrophies.

Our triple combination regimen, TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor), was approved in 2019 in the United States (“U.S.”) and in 2020 in the European Union (“E.U.”). Collectively, our four medicines are being used to treat more than two-thirds of the approximately 88,000 people with CF in North America, Europe, and Australia. We are evaluating our medicines in additional patient populations, including younger children, with the goal of having small molecule treatments for all people who have at least one mutation in their cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (“CFTR”) gene that is responsive to our CFTR modulators. We also are pursuing messenger ribonucleic acid (“mRNA”) and genetic therapies for people with CF who do not make CFTR protein and, as a result, cannot benefit from our current CF medicines.

In addition, we are preparing for near-term launches of potential new products in sickle cell disease (“SCD”), beta thalassemia, CF and acute pain. We completed regulatory submissions in the U.S., E.U. and the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) for exagamglogene autotemcel (“exa-cel”) for the treatment of SCD and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (“TDT”). The exa-cel regulatory submissions for SCD and TDT are under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”).

Financial Highlights

Note: Charts above may not add due to rounding.

Business Updates

Marketed Products

We expect to grow our CF business with (i) continued uptake by patients in countries where we are early in our launch, such as those with recently achieved reimbursement agreements, (ii) label expansions, including into younger patient groups, (iii) the development of mRNA therapies for people with CF who are not eligible for our approved CFTR modulators, and (iv) growth in the number of people living with CF. Recent progress in activities supporting continued uptake and label expansions is included below.

• Health Canada granted market authorization for the use of TRIKAFTA in children with CF 2 to 5 years of age who have at least one F508del mutation in the CFTR gene.

• The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted a positive opinion for the use of KAFTRIO in children with CF 2 to 5 years of age who have at least one F508del mutation in the CFTR gene.

• The European Commission approved ORKAMBI in children with CF 1 year to less than 2 years of age with two copies of the F508del mutation in the CFTR gene.

Potential Near-Term Launch Opportunities

We are preparing for the following near-term launches of potential new products:

Exa-cel in SCD and TDT

• In the U.S., the FDA’s Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee meeting to discuss exa-cel in people with SCD has completed. The FDA has assigned exa-cel Prescription Drug User Fee Act action dates of December 8, 2023 for SCD and March 30, 2024 for TDT. The FDA granted Priority Review for the BLA for exa-cel in SCD. Exa-cel has been granted Fast Track, Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy, Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease designations in the U.S.

• The EMA and MHRA are reviewing the marketing authorization applications (each, an “MAA”) for exa-cel in SCD and TDT in the E.U. and U.K, and we expect regulatory decisions in the coming months. In the E.U., exa-cel has been granted Priority Medicines (“PRIME”) and Orphan Drug designations. In the U.K., exa-cel has been granted an Innovation Passport under the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway from the MHRA.

• We submitted a MAA for exa-cel in SCD and TDT to the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (the “SFDA”). Exa-cel has been granted Breakthrough designation by the SFDA in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor in CF

• We expect to complete the pivotal SKYLINE 102 and SKYLINE 103 clinical trials, which evaluate the efficacy and safety of our new once-daily investigational triple combination vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor relative to TRIKAFTA in people with CF 12 years of age and older, and the RIDGELINE clinical trial of vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor in children with CF 6 to 11 years of age, by the end of 2023.

• We expect to share the results of all three clinical trials in early 2024.

VX-548 in Acute Pain

*•*We have completed the randomized controlled Phase 3 pivotal trial in abdominoplasty and we continue to enroll the randomized, controlled Phase 3 clinical trial in bunionectomy and a single-arm safety and effectiveness clinical trial, evaluating our lead compound, VX-548, for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain. We expect to complete the pivotal program for acute pain in late 2023. We expect to share results from the three clinical trials in early 2024.

• In the U.S., VX-548 has been granted Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designations for moderate to severe acute pain.

Pipeline

We continue to advance a diversified pipeline of potentially transformative medicines for serious diseases utilizing a range of modalities. Recent and anticipated progress in activities supporting these efforts is included below.

Cystic Fibrosis

• In collaboration with Moderna, we are developing VX-522, a CFTR mRNA therapeutic for the treatment of people with CF who do not produce any CFTR protein. We are enrolling people with CF in a single-ascending dose clinical trial for VX-522. We expect to complete this single-ascending dose clinical trial and initiate a multiple-ascending dose clinical trial by the end of 2023. In the U.

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Information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the discussion in Part II, Item 7A, “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk,” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, which was filed with the SEC on February 10, 2023.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management (under the supervision and with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer), after evaluating the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, has concluded that, based on such evaluation, as of September 30, 2023 our disclosure controls and procedures were effective and designed to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, our management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and our management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

Changes in Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting

No change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) occurred during the three months ended September 30, 2023 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II. Other Information

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We are not currently subject to any material legal proceedings.

Information regarding risk factors appears in Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, which was filed with the SEC on February 10, 2023. There have been no material changes from the risk factors previously disclosed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and, in particular, our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations set forth in Part I, Item 2, contain a number of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not purely historical and may be accompanied by words such as “anticipates,” “may,” “forecasts,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “potentially,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” and other words and terms of similar meaning. Such statements may relate to:

• our expectations regarding the amount of, timing of, and trends with respect to our financial performance, including revenues, costs and expenses, and other gains and losses;

• our expectations regarding our clinical trials and pipeline programs, including expectations for patient enrollment, development timelines, the expected timing of data from our ongoing and planned clinical trials, regulatory authority filings and other submissions for our therapies, communications with regulatory authorities and anticipated regulatory approvals;

• our ability to maintain and obtain adequate reimbursement for our products, our ability to launch, commercialize and market our products or any of our other therapies for which we obtain regulatory approval and our ability to obtain label expansions for existing therapies;

• our expectations regarding our ability to continue to grow our CF business by increasing the number of people with CF eligible and able to receive our medicines, providing improved treatment options for people who are already eligible for one of our medicines, and pursuing genetic therapies for people with CF who cannot currently benefit from our medicines;

• the data that will be generated by ongoing and planned clinical trials and the ability to use that data to advance compounds, continue development or support regulatory filings;

• our beliefs regarding the support provided by clinical trials and preclinical and nonclinical studies of our therapies for further investigation, clinical trials or potential use as a treatment;

• our plans to continue investing in our research and development programs, including anticipated timelines for our programs, and our strategy to develop our pipeline programs, alone or with third party-collaborators;

• our beliefs regarding the approximate patient populations for the disease areas on which we focus;

• the potential benefits and therapeutic scope of our acquisitions and collaborations;

• the establishment, development and maintenance of collaborative relationships, including potential milestone payments or other obligations;

• potential business development activities, including the identification of potential collaborative partners or acquisition targets;

• our ability to expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio and otherwise maintain exclusive rights to products;

• potential fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and the effectiveness of our foreign currency management program;

• our expectations regarding cash generated by operations, our cash balance and expected generation and interest income;

• our expectations regarding our provision for or benefit from income taxes and the utilization of our deferred tax assets;

• our ability to use our research programs to identify and develop new product candidates to address serious diseases and significant unmet medical needs;

• our plans to expand, strengthen, and invest in our global supply chains and manufacturing infrastructure and capabilities, including for cell and gene therapies; and

• our liquidity and our expectations regarding the possibility of raising additional capital.

Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, or other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in any such statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, but are not limited to, those described in our “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, which was filed with the SEC on February 10, 2023, and those described from time to time in our future reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any such forward-looking statements are made on the basis of our views and assumptions as of the date of the filing and are not estimates of future performance. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such statements.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

Issuer Repurchases of Equity Securities

In February 2023, our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program (our “Share Repurchase Program”), pursuant to which we are authorized to repurchase up to $3.0 billion of our common stock. Our Share Repurchase Program does not have an expiration date and can be discontinued at any time. The table set forth below shows repurchases of securities by us during the three months ended September 30, 2023 under our Share Repurchase Program.

(1) Under our Share Repurchase Program, we are authorized to purchase shares from time to time through open market or privately negotiated transactions. Such purchases may be pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 plans or other means as determined by our management and in accordance with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans

Our policy governing transactions in our securities by our directors, officers, and employees permits our officers, directors and employees to enter into trading plans complying with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The following table describes the written plans for the sale of our securities adopted by our executive officers and directors during the third quarter of 2023, each of which is intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1 (each, a “Trading Plan”).

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.