Stuart Arbuckle, Vertex’s chief operating officer and one of the company’s longest-tenured leaders, will retire from his role in July.
He will be replaced by Charlie Wagner, who will become COO in addition to his role as CFO. Duncan McKechnie, the company’s North America sales head, will be promoted to chief commercial officer, Vertex said Monday as part of its announcement of fourth quarter earnings.
Arbuckle joined Vertex as its commercial chief in 2012, the year the company won U.S. approval for Kalydeco, its first medicine for cystic fibrosis. Vertex has since secured approval for four more, including Alyftrek this past December, that collectively can help treat some 90% of people with the lung disease. Its success in cystic fibrosis has made it one of biotechnology’s largest companies, now worth about $120 billion.
Arbuckle, who added the COO title in 2021, also helped Vertex launch Casgevy, a CRISPR gene editing therapy for sickle cell diseases, and Journavx, the first new type of treatment for pain approved in more than decades.
“Stuart has had a profound impact on Vertex,” Reshma Kewalramani, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. McKechnie, she noted, is well positioned to succeed Arbuckle as CCO, having worked with him for the past 12 years.
On a conference call with analysts Monday, Arbuckle said his planned retirement was “purely a personal decision.”
“I have never been more excited to be at Vertex and never been more confident about the future of this company,” he added.
Vertex reported $11 billion in product revenue last year, most of which came from sales of its cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta, which it also sells as Kaftrio. The company expects to make between $11.75 billion and $12 billion in product revenue this year.
Billed as a non-addictive alternative to opioids, Journavx is widely expected to become a blockbuster, too. But Vertex may have a challenge convincing insurers to widely pay for and encourage treatment — a task that will soon fall to McKechnie.
The company said it expects to begin shipping Journavx to pharmacies by the end of this month and noted “early momentum” with payers and retailers.
