Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of treatments for hepatitis C, said today that investors who hold about $109 million worth of debt securities have converted those holdings into equity stakes. The deal doesn’t leave Vertex debt free, because the company still has to pay back $35 million in principal, at a 4.75 percent interest rate, in 2013. The debtholders who are accepting stock will now get 4.8 million shares of Vertex (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]). The company’s shares have more than doubled in value to $40.69 at today’s close, compared with the 52-week low of $19.87.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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