September 7, 2006 -- Vertex Pharma had an outstanding 2005, its shares rising from $10 to $30 over the course of the year. The reason? VX-950, a promising drug for the nasty and pernicious scourge known as hepatitis C. The run-up in share price of Vertex means that the company has a market cap of $3.9 billion, even though it continues to produce losses while the hepatitis C drug is several years and multiple clinical trials away from commercialization. We look at Vertex and its hepatitis C drug candidate...
