Vertex to Buy Hepatitis C Drug Developer

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX Quote) is adding two new drugs to its hepatitis C pipeline with the acquisition of ViroChem, a privately held Canadian drugmaker, the company announced Tuesday.

The final purchase price for ViroChem has not been set, but it includes a cash payment of $100 million and 9.9 million common shares. At Vertex's Tuesday closing price of $27.96, the stock portion of the deal is valued at about $280 million.

The acquisition of ViroChem adds two experimental hepatitis C drugs to Vertex's pipeline, which already includes telaprevir, a drug currently in a series of phase III studies. ...