Vertex Pharmaceuticals price target raised to $500 from $450 at Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer raised the firm’s price target on Vertex Pharmaceuticals to $500 from $450 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm notes Vertex Pharmaceuticals reported strong Phase 3 results for VX-548 in acute pain. While neither Phase 3s demonstrated superiority to hydrocodone bitartrate/acetaminophen on sum of the pain intensity difference from 0 to 48 hours, the totality of the data for VX-548 is, Oppenheimer believes, indicative of a class of medicines that could be practice-changing. Physicians’ high expectations seem to have been met, it adds.