Free-spending Vertex bets $950 million to 'transform the treatment paradigm for type 1 diabetes'

3 September 2019

US drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) has taken another gamble outside its traditional cystic fibrosis specialty, this time with the aim of developing curative cell-based treatments for type 1 diabetes.

The Boston-based firm is to pay $950 million to buy privately-held US biotech Semma Therapeutics, the fourth time it has enhanced its pipeline since May, though this deal might be the most ambitious in scope yet given the size of the diabetes market.

'Potentially curative'

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