J.P. Morgan Maintains Neutral Rating On VRTX

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

announced its 2011 objectives ahead of the company's presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, J.P. Morgan reports. “Additionally, we hosted a dinner with Vertex management ahead of the conference where the focus was on the telaprevir launch,” J.P. Morgan writes. “While there was nothing game changing in Vertex's press release today, interestingly at our dinner, the company highlighted what they see as good upside to 2011 consensus sales expectations for telaprevir. “Still, we continue to believe that Street expectations for the telaprevir launch may be a bit high, given likely hurdles of a drug launch (mostly reimbursement), and also in this case, a competitor in Merck. We remain comfortable with our Neutral rating on VRTX shares.” Vertex Pharmaceuticals currently trades at $35.99.