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Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. says it plans to sell the rights to certain milestone payments that are linked to the future regulatory filing, approval and market launch of its hepatitis C virus drug candidate, telaprevir, in Europe -- a deal that could have brought as much as $250 million to the Cambridge company.
A collaboration was signed in June 2006 by Vertex (Nasdaq: VRTX) to develop and commercialize telaprevir in Europe for the treatment of HCV with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., a Johnson & Johnson company.
The milestones anticipated for telaprevir in Europe that Vertex is putting on the market include $100 million tied to regulatory filing and approval and $150 million linked to the potential launch of telaprevir.
Vertex said it would likely earn those milestones prior to April 2012.
Vertex did not identify any possible purchaser of the milestone rights but did say that if it makes the sale, it would receive a one-time cash payment for a “substantial percentage” of the future milestones.
Last month Vertex announced a pair of notes deals that brought about $143 million into the company’s coffers.
Vertex focuses on making small molecule drugs for viral diseases, cystic fibrosis, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, cancer and pain relief. It does so by selling products both independently and in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies.
For fiscal 2008, Vertex reported a loss of $459.8 million on revenue of $175.5 million.
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