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Key Takeaways

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals missed first-quarter profit and revenue forecasts as costs jumped.

• The biotech firm also posted a decline in sales outside the U.S. because of intellectual property rights violations in Russia.

• Vertex raised the lower end of its 2025 guidance as it sees higher demand for its cystic fibrosis treatments.

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) slumped 12% Tuesday, a day after the biotech firm reported worse-than-expected results as costs increased.

Vertex posted first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $4.06, with revenue rising 3% year-over-year to $2.77 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for $4.19 and $2.83 billion, respectively.

U.S. revenue grew 9% to $1.66 billion in part because of higher prices. However, outside the U.S. revenue dropped 5% to $1.11 billion because of a decline in sales in Russia, where the company said it is "experiencing violation of its intellectual property rights."

Total expenses skyrocketed nearly 40% to $2.14 billion, which Vertex blamed mostly on "continued R&D investment in support of multiple mid- and late-stage clinical development programs and increased commercial investment to support the launch of JOURNAVX," its non-opioid pain medicine. In addition, it also had a $379.0 million intangible asset impairment charge associated with its experimental diabetes treatment VX-264, which it won't be advancing for additional clinical development.

Vertex raised the low end of its full-year revenue guidance to $11.85 billion from $11.75 billion as it sees continued growth in demand for its cystic fibrosis drugs, including the recently launched Alyftrek. The company did not change its upper end outlook of $12.0 billion.

Even with today’s slide, shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals are up almost 10% in 2025.

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