New York, Feb 12, 2026, 19:30 EST — After-hours
- Vertex shares edged higher in after-hours trade after the company issued 2026 revenue guidance with fourth-quarter results.
- Investors are watching whether newer products can meaningfully broaden growth beyond cystic fibrosis drugs.
- A kidney-disease program and the pace of new launches sit near the top of the near-term watchlist.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O) shares were up 0.7% at $465.02 in after-hours trading on Thursday, after the company set out its 2026 revenue outlook alongside quarterly results. The stock traded between $451.17 and $469.80 during the session.
The numbers matter now because Vertex is trying to prove it can keep expanding even as its cystic fibrosis franchise gets larger and harder to grow fast. Investors have been pressing for a clearer read on what comes next, not just what already works.
That “next” is messy. Gene therapy rollouts depend on treatment centers and patient timing, while a new pain drug needs payers and physicians to change habits, one prescription at a time.
Vertex forecast 2026 revenue of $12.95 billion to $13.1 billion — a midpoint near the $13.02 billion analyst consensus compiled by LSEG — and said at least $500 million should come from non-cystic fibrosis products. It pointed to increased infusions of Casgevy and the second-year rollout of Journavx, a non-opioid painkiller, which had more than 550,000 prescriptions through year-end 2025 and has coverage with the three national pharmacy benefit managers, the firms that manage drug benefits for insurers and employers. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 10% to $3.19 billion, while adjusted profit — excluding certain items — was $5.03 a share, just under estimates; the company also said it expects interim data in the first half of 2026 for its kidney-disease candidate povetacicept and is using a priority review voucher, which can shorten the U.S. FDA review timeline, to speed the process. (Reuters)
Chief Executive Reshma Kewalramani called 2025 a year of “strong revenue growth, commercial diversification, and pipeline advancement,” and said the focus in 2026 is execution across the cystic fibrosis business and newer launches. Vertex reported GAAP net income of about $1.2 billion for the quarter and ended 2025 with $12.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, according to the company’s filing. (SEC)
For now, the cystic fibrosis franchise still does most of the heavy lifting, and traders tend to treat everything else as a progress report. Casgevy and Journavx are the near-term scorecards.
Friday’s regular session will show whether investors lean into the guidance range or fixate on the slight adjusted earnings miss. The first real tell will be whether the market buys the idea that non-CF revenue can scale quickly enough to matter in 2026.
But there are clean ways this can go wrong. Gene therapy revenue can swing quarter to quarter if patient starts slip, and broad payer coverage does not always translate into steady prescription growth for a new pain drug. On the pipeline side, any delay to kidney-disease data pushes out a catalyst investors are already penciling in.
What investors watch next is timing and detail: updates on Journavx uptake and Casgevy infusion volumes, and whether Vertex sticks to its plan to deliver interim povetacicept data and progress its U.S. accelerated-approval filing in the first half of 2026.
