By Nate Wolf

Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock was falling sharply Tuesday after the biotech company reported first-quarter earnings that missed analysts' expectations and disclosed narrower-than-expected access to its new non-opioid painkiller.

Adjusted earnings came in at $4.06 a share, below the $4.32 Wall Street had forecast. Revenue of $2.77 billion also missed estimates of $2.85 billion.

Shares were down 13%, putting the stock on track for its worst day since October 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Reception to the earnings was mixed among analysts.

J.P. Morgan and Cantor Fitzgerald each maintained Overweight ratings for Vertex.

However, analysts at Leerink Partners downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform and slashed their price target to $503 from $550, citing lower confidence that patients would have "broad unrestricted access" to Vertex's pain medication Journavx.

"We are moving to the sidelines as we await future updates on Journavx formulary access, prescription uptake, and net pricing," Leerink analysts wrote in a research note. "VRTX has compelling long-term growth prospects, but it is difficult to predict Journavx performance near-term."

On a conference call following the release earnings late Monday, Vertex's head of North America commercial, Duncan McKechnie, said the company has seen "strong reception" for the drug, which was available at roughly 33,000 pharmacy locations nationwide as of March.

But negotiations with commercial and government insurance payers aren't progressing as quickly as Leerink's analysts or investors expected, after the Food and Drug Administration's approved Journavx as a non-opioid alternative to treat acute pain in January.

Of the 94 million insured people who have access to the drug, just 45% are able to obtain it without prior authorization from their insurers, said McKechnie.

Before Tuesday's sharp decline, investors largely had been bullish on Vertex. The stock had risen 23% this year as of Monday's close, while the S&P 500 fell 4.2%.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com

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May 06, 2025 12:31 ET (16:31 GMT)

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