Cambridge biotech tracker · Boston
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Listed on Nasdaq as VRTX, filed under SEC industry code 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations). Fiscal year ends in December. Numbers below are from the company’s own SEC filings through Q3 '26.
- Cash & investments
- $9.82B
- Q3 '26 · Sep 30, 2026
- Burn per quarter
- None
- avg. operating cash flow, 4 qtrs
- Runway
- Self-funding
- Self-funding
- Net loss
- +$654M
- Q3 '26 · net income
- R&D expense
- $1.32B
- 48% of opex
- Raised, last 4 qtrs
- +$3.25B
- net financing cash flow
- FDA decision
- Nov 2026
- FDA decision · self-funding
Cash & investments
Quarter-end balance
Operating cash flow
Per quarter; below zero is burn
R&D expense
Per quarter
Two views of the runway
Compare across the clusterThe outside view
Self-funding
Cash at Q3 '26 divided by the average burn of the last four quarters.
Management’s own date
12+ months
The latest filing states only the going concern minimum, that cash covers at least twelve months from issuance. No sharper date was filed.
Cash against the calendar
What the runway has to reach.
Nov 30, 2026
FDA target action date (PDUFA)
Disclosed in the 10-Q filed Nov 3, 2026Does the cash reach it?
Self-funding
- Runway
- Self-funding
- Time to the date
- 3 weeks
It is about 3 weeks out. Operating cash flow is positive on average, so the date is not a financing deadline.
Catalysts ahead
- Nov 2026FDA decisionFDA target action date (PDUFA)
- Feb 2027Phase 1/2A Phase 1/2 Study of VX-670 in Adult Participants With Myotonic Dystrophy 1 (DM1)
- Mar 2027Phase 2Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of VX-993 for Pain Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
- Apr 2027Phase 3Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Suzetrigine (SUZ) for Pain Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
- May 2027Phase 3Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Suzetrigine for Pain Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
- Jun 2027Phase 3Evaluation of Safety and Efficacy of CTX001 in Pediatric Participants With Severe Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)
- Jun 2027Phase 3Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of a Single Dose of CTX001 in Participants With Transfusion-Dependent β-Thalassemia and Severe Sickle Cell Disease
- Jul 2027Phase 2Phase 2a Study of VX-407 in Participants With ADPKD Who Have a Subset of PKD1 Gene Variants (AGLOW)
FDA decision dates disclosed in filings
“…in IgAN. The biologics license application for accelerated approval of povetacicept for adults with IgAN is under priority review by the FDA, with an assigned PDUFA target action date of November 30, 2026. If approved, povetacicept will become the first commercialized therapy in our emerging nephrology franchise. Povetacicept is under re…”
Pulled from the company’s own filing text. An approval decision is a financing event as much as a clinical one, since the commercial build-out has to be funded months before any revenue from it arrives.
Pipeline
24 active trials, through phase 4.
Phase 3 · 16Phase 1 · 6Phase 2 · 4Phase 1/2 · 2Phase 2/3 · 2Phase 4 · 1
Interventional studies where this company is the lead sponsor, from ClinicalTrials.gov. Primary completion is when the last patient is measured on the primary endpoint, which is when the data exists rather than when it is announced. Extension, rollover and healthy-volunteer studies are listed but marked as non-catalysts, because they finish long after the result that mattered. Sponsors revise these dates as enrollment moves, so an estimate is a plan rather than a promise.
The controller’s read
What the filings say.
Generated from the numbers above using the same questions I ask when I open a client’s books: how long the cash lasts, what is driving the gap between loss and burn, and where the accounting judgment sits.
Get this read on your companySelf-funding on an operating basis
Operating cash flow was positive on average over the last four quarters, so runway is not the constraint. Cash and investments stood at $9.82B at Q3 '26.
Cash position down $1.40B since Q4 '24
Net financing inflows of $3.25B over the last four quarters, from equity, debt, or ATM sales, partly offset operating burn. The balance is the number the board watches; the trend is the number the auditors watch.
R&D is 48% of operating expenses
$1.32B of R&D against $2.73B of total operating expenses in Q3 '26, with G&A at $844M. For a clinical-stage company, the accounting questions live inside that R&D line: CRO and CMC accruals, milestone recognition, and what gets capitalized versus expensed under ASC 730.
Revenue of $3.44B in Q3 '26
Collaboration and license revenue under ASC 606 and ASC 808 is the single most judgment-heavy area in biotech accounting: performance obligations, variable consideration on milestones, and the split between revenue and cost-sharing.
$3.50B of long-term debt or convertible notes
Debt in a pre-revenue biotech usually comes with liquidity covenants and, for convertibles, embedded features that need ASC 815 and ASC 470 analysis each quarter.
Retained earnings of $16.3B
Cumulative profits exceed cumulative losses, which puts this company in a different accounting conversation from most of the neighborhood.
Quarterly detail, eight quarters
| Quarter | Cash & inv. | Op. cash flow | Net income | R&D | G&A | Revenue | Stock comp | Financing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 '24 · Dec 31, 24 | $11.2B | $585M | $913M | $999M | $378M | $2.91B | $168M | −$391M |
| Q1 '25 · Mar 31, 25 | $11.4B | $819M | $646M | $980M | $396M | $2.77B | $166M | −$680M |
| Q2 '25 · Jun 30, 25 | $12.0B | $1.07B | $1.03B | $978M | $425M | $2.96B | $167M | −$349M |
| Q3 '25 · Sep 30, 25 | $12.0B | $1.24B | $1.08B | $978M | $445M | $3.08B | $195M | −$1.15B |
| Q4 '25 · Dec 31, 25 | $12.3B | $498M | $1.19B | $974M | $487M | $3.19B | $158M | −$77.2M |
| Q1 '26 · Mar 31, 26 | $13.0B | $1.43B | $1.03B | $962M | $494M | $2.99B | $166M | −$539M |
| Q2 '26 · Jun 30, 26 | $13.6B | $1.13B | $1.10B | $994M | $582M | $3.33B | $170M | −$427M |
| Q3 '26 · Sep 30, 26 | $9.82B | $643M | $654M | $1.32B | $844M | $3.44B | $174M | $4.30B |
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts, latest filed value for each period. Fourth quarters are derived from annual less nine-month figures; quarterly cash flows are derived from year-to-date amounts. Not investment advice. If a figure disagrees with the filing, the filing is right.