Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Plunges Still Outshines Competitors

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares dropped 0.23% to $199.59 Wednesday. This proved to be an all-around grim trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX falling 0.46% to 4,402.66 and Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA falling 0.92% to 34,792.67.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed $83.86 short of its 52-week high ($283.45), which the company achieved on September 2nd. Despite its losses, the stock outperformed some of its competitors Wednesday, as Johnson & Johnson JNJ fell 0.59% to $173.36, Merck & Co. Inc. MRK fell 1.22% to $75.48, and AbbVie Inc. ABBV fell 1.01% to $115.08.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc trading volume (2.6 M) eclipsed its 50-day average volume of 2.5 M. The company announced that Stuart A. Arbuckle had been appointed as the company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Arbuckle has served as Vertex’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer since 2012 and expanded his role to include oversight of operations earlier this year.

Mr. Arbuckle has more than 30 years of experience leading global sales and marketing efforts at biopharmaceutical companies, including at Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline plc. Mr. Arbuckle currently serves as a member of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals and ImmunoGen’s board of directors, as a national board member of the Cancer Support Community, and on the Executive Committee and Health Section Governing Board for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). He is also co-chair of the BIO Standing Committee on Access & Value. Mr. Arbuckle earned a degree in pharmacology and physiology from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.