BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Ahead of House of Commons meeting, another Vertex triple CF combo meets in Phase III

March 6, 2019 8:31 PM UTC

A day before Parliament's House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the availability and pricing of Vertex's portfolio of cystic fibrosis drugs, the biotech announced that a second CF triple combination therapy has met the primary endpoint in two Phase III trials.

Last month, a Parliamentary debate was held to discuss whether the U.K. government should grant a Crown Use License to allow another manufacturer to produce a generic form of CF drug Orkambi ivacaftor/lumacaftor without consent from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX). NHS England and Vertex have been negotiating Orkambi’s pricing since 2016, when NICE issued final guidance saying the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) was not cost effective (see "MPs Question Cost of an Orkambi Compulsory License")...