UPDATE: Brean Murray Carret & Co. Upgrades Vertex Pharmaceuticals

According to a research report published this morning, Brean Murray Carret & Co. has upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals

from Hold to Buy. In the report, Brean Murray Carret & Co. said, "Vertex put lackluster Phase 2 results from last summer in the rearview mirror today by demonstrating profound clinical benefits in a subset of cystic fibrosis patients. We believe these results have the potential to expand the company's targeted CF population by 10x. Although Phase 3 still remains a hurdle, we now have confidence that the robust sales numbers seen in the first quarter of Kalydeco sales will be possible across a much larger patient population with the addition of a CFTR corrector (VX-809) to a CFTR potentiator (Kalydeco).Although the true market potential is difficult to gauge at this point, we believe a reasonable penetration into the F508del homozygotes could yield peak WW sales of ~$4 billion." Brean Murray Carret & Co. maintains its $69 PT on Vertex, which closed yesterday at $57.02.