Introduction - Rationale for the article
One of the several smaller but commercial-sized biotechs that has been around for decades but is yet to truly emerge as a profitable enterprise, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX), is a $37 billion market cap stock. It was one of the early rational drug design companies. With 96% of the shares held by institutions, the public is apparently little involved in trading the stock. However, there are close to 20,000 Seeking Alpha members who have VRTX on a watch list, and certainly many others who follow it, at least from time to time, consistent with the sophistication of Seeking Alpha members.
One of the problems following VRTX is that the terminology used for the disease it specializes in developing drugs for - cystic fibrosis, or CF - is complicated to the point of being inscrutable without special training.
