Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 company with activities spanning the length of the pharmaceutical product pipeline, from target identification through to clinical trials and marketing. Most of its activity has been in collaboration with much larger pharmaceutical firms, though some of its recent work has been done independently. Vertex was founded in 1989 by Kevin Kinsella and Larry Bock of Avalon Ventures and Gary Aronson. Kevin, Larry and Gary recruited Joshua Boger from Merck Pharmaceuticals. Joshua Boger retired in 2009.Vertex was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. Vertex went about understanding a disease and then tried to develop a process to cure it. In 2004, its product pipeline focused on viral infections, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, and cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. Its capital investments include a headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and two research facilities, in San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, and Oxford, England. The company's beginnings were profiled by Barry Werth in the 1994 book "The Billion-Dollar Molecule

The Billion-Dollar Molecule

The Billion-Dollar Molecule is a non-fiction book written by journalist Barry Werth about the founding and early research efforts of the American biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in 1989 by Joshua Boger and was among the first biotechnology companies to adopt an...

".

In November 2010, Vertex Pharmaceuticals completed its first New Drug Application

New drug application

The New Drug Application is the vehicle in the United States through which drug sponsors formally propose that the Food and Drug Administration approve a new pharmaceutical for sale and marketing...

 (NDA) under its own name for the drug Telaprevir

Telaprevir

Telaprevir , marketed as the brand name Incivek, is a pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of hepatitis C co-developed by Vertex and Johnson & Johnson. It is a member of a class of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors...

, a novel oral treatment of Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...

. Development and commercialization of Telaprevir is shared with Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....

 for European distribution and Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

 for the far east. Telaprevir, a protease inhibitor

Protease inhibitor (pharmacology)

Protease inhibitors are a class of drugs used to treat or prevent infection by viruses, including HIV and Hepatitis C. PIs prevent viral replication by inhibiting the activity of proteases, e.g.HIV-1 protease, enzymes used by the viruses to cleave nascent proteins for final assembly of new...

, is the first in this class to reach NDA status, ahead of Merck

Merck & Co.

Merck & Co., Inc. , also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, an unincorporated area in Readington Township...

's boceprevir

Boceprevir

Boceprevir is a protease inhibitor used as a treatment for hepatitis C genotype 1. It binds to HCV nonstructural 3 active site....

.

In April of 2011, WCBS NewsRadio 880 advertisements announcing a nurse hotline and http://www.bettertoknowc.com/ for hepatitis C information have began airing in the New York Metro area. On May 23, 2011 the FDA approved telaprevir, a direct acting antiviral drug (DAA) to treat hepatitis C (HCV)

As of April 2009, the company had about 1,800 employees, 1,200 of which were in the Boston area.