Summary
Vertex Pharmaceuticals continues to be a leading player in the cystic fibrosis space in 2018.
The company is focused on advancing its research pipeline in the CF space.
The company's non-CF pipeline might also prove to be a major growth driver for Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Certain company-specific risks cannot be ignored by retail investors.
The year 2018 is panning out to be a lucky one for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), especially after the launch of new cystic fibrosis or CF drug, a tezacaftor/ivacaftor combination regimen, SYMDEKO, in the U.S. market. This drug reported $186 million worth in revenues in Q2 2018 and has become the primary growth driver of CF revenues in 2018. The company reported total CF net product revenues close to $750 million, which is a year-over-year or YoY rise of 46% in Q2 2018.
Increasing adoption of SYMDEKO in the U.S. coupled with rising number of CF patients treated with Vertex' medicines across the world, has resulted in the company revising up its FY 2018 revenue guidance from the previous projection of $2.65 billion to $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion to $3 billion, as per Q2 2018 earnings conference call. At the midpoint, the new revenue guidance range reflects a YoY rise of almost 36%. The company's guidance for non-GAAP G&A and R&D range, however, has remained unchanged at $1.5 billion to 1$.55 billion.
