Vertex founder Joshua Boger on surviving downturns, ‘painful’ partnerships, and the importance of culture: #JPM24

While the JP Mor­gan Health­care Con­fer­ence was full of voic­es of mea­sured op­ti­mism, root­ing for the mar­ket to bounce back in 2024, one long­time biotech leader warned against set­ting any firm ex­pec­ta­tions.

In­stead of pre­dict­ing when the down­turn may end, Ver­tex Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals founder Joshua Boger said he ad­vis­es biotech lead­ers to ex­pect — and plan for — volatil­i­ty. Speak­ing Tues­day on an End­points News pan­el along­side Or­biMed’s Carl Gor­don and Ap­pia Bio CEO JJ Kang, Boger shared lessons learned on sur­viv­ing down­turns, strik­ing phar­ma deals, and the im­por­tance of keep­ing a com­pa­ny’s cul­ture based on his two decades of found­ing and lead­ing Ver­tex as CEO from 1989 to 2009. The 72-year-old is now serv­ing as ex­ec­u­tive chair­man of Alkeus Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, a start­up de­vel­op­ing a rare dis­ease drug.

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