Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]) said today it has agreed to pay $60 million upfront, as much as $715 million in development milestone payments over time, and potentially $750 million in sales milestones, to obtain a worldwide license to a couple new hepatitis C drug candidates from South San Francisco-based Alios Biopharma. The two drugs are nucleoside analogues which Vertex hopes to put into a hepatitis C cocktail regimen that is entirely oral, and would eliminate the standard interferon that causes flu-like symptoms. Vertex won FDA clearance last month for its pioneering new protease inhibitor, telaprevir (Incivek), which raises cure rates to almost 80 percent for hepatitis C patients, but which must be given in tandem with standard interferon.
