N.Y. Senator to SEC: Probe Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Stock Sales

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into a sharp increase in Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ stock price last month in the wake of interim drug trial results that turned out to be overstated. In a letter to SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro today, the Iowa Republican called the stock’s 55 percent spike on May 7 “potentially troubling for investors in the pharmaceutical industry and for the federal government, which pays billions of dollars every year for drugs through the Medicaid and Medicare programs.” Three weeks later, the Cambridge company said the results of the trial for an experimental drug combination for cystic fibrosis were actually lower than it had previously reported because of an outside vendor’s mistake in assessing the data. Vertex stock fell nearly 11 percent after the correction.

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