Vertex to drop hep C drug Incivek following poor sales

Struggling US Biotech firm Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) has said it will cease marketing its hepatitis C treatment Incivek (telaprevir) due to declining sales and strong competition in the hepatitis C treatment arena.

Three years after being  heralded as the fastest drug launch ever and quickly racking up blockbuster sales, Incivek will be discontinued this October, said Vertex.

Sales began to decline at the end of 2012 as patients began to wait for promising new drugs from competitors, which hit the market at the end of 2013. Incivek revenue from the recent quarter that ended in June was just $9 million, a far cry from the $1.2 billion it generated in 2012, its first full year on the market. Vertex said last October that it planned to cut 370 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, due to competition from other hepatitis C treatments. It also  sold royalty rights relating to telaprevir to partner US health care giant Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE: JNJ) Janssen Pharmaceutica subsidiary for $152 million.