Boston based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc stock Crashes

Boston Based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. shed 0.79% to $214.65 Tuesday. This proved to be an all-around dismal trading session for the Stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX falling 0.85% to 4,127.83 and Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA falling 0.78% to 34,060.66. This was the stock’s second consecutive day of losses.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed $91.44 short of its 52-week high ($306.08), which the company reached on July 7th. The stock underperformed when compared to some of its competitors Tuesday, as Johnson Johnson JNJ, +0.04% rose 0.04% to $170.45, Merck & Co. Inc. MRK, -0.61% fell 0.61% to $79.38, and AbbVie Inc. ABBV, +0.27% rose 0.27% to $117.21. Trading volume (1.3 M) remained 298,191 below its 50-day average volume of 1.6 M.

Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc has sold potential future milestones relating to VX-561 under the 2017 asset purchase agreement to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc for $32 million. Roger Tung, President and CEO of Concert Pharmaceuticals said that this transaction provided an opportunity to secure non-dilutive capital and strengthened our balance sheet as we continue to advance CTP-543, our lead asset for alopecia areata, through its Phase 3 program. Under the asset purchase agreement, Vertex acquired worldwide development and commercialization rights to VX-561 for cystic fibrosis.

In 2017, Concert received a one-time cash payment of $160 million on closing the asset purchase, with the potential for $90 million in future milestones.Following receipt of the $32 million, no further milestone obligations remain.