Out­go­ing CEO Jeff Lei­den takes vic­to­ry lap as Ver­tex's Trikaf­ta stuns Wall Street

The first set of quar­ter­ly sales for Ver­tex’s re­cent­ly ap­proved cys­tic fi­bro­sis triplet — Trikaf­ta — as­tound­ed an­a­lysts on Thurs­day, as out­go­ing com­pa­ny chief Jeff Lei­den took his fi­nal lap in the “team sport” he calls drug de­vel­op­ment.

Six weeks in­to its launch the CF ther­a­py has al­ready be­come the top-sell­ing drug in Ver­tex’s port­fo­lio. Ap­proved in Oc­to­ber, quar­ter­ly Trikaf­ta sales hit a mas­sive $420 mil­lion (in­clud­ing a $100 mil­lion launch-re­lat­ed chan­nel in­ven­to­ry build) in the Unit­ed States — record­ing the strongest first quar­ter of sales for any drug, BMO Cap­i­tal Mar­kets’ an­a­lyst Do Kim es­ti­mat­ed. Con­sen­sus Wall Street ex­pec­ta­tions for the reg­i­men were a mere $70 mil­lion.

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