Vertex Scientists Awarded the 2025 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for Pioneering Discoveries in Cystic Fibrosis

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[{"type":"text","content":" BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nVertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced that Senior Vice President Paul Negulescu has been named as one of the winners of this year’s Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his role “in the development of a novel, life-saving treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) — namely, a triple-drug combination therapy, TRIKAFTA®, that has helped countless people with this genetic disease.” Dr. Negulescu is one of three awardees, alongside Jesús (Tito) González, a former Vertex scientist, and Michael Welsh, Professor of Internal Medicine-Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine, University of Iowa.\n\n\nThe prize honors the groundbreaking work of Dr. Negulescu, Dr. González and the entire Vertex team who discovered and developed the first and only approved medicines that address the underlying cause of CF. To date, Vertex has brought five transformational medicines to patients with CF which have fundamentally changed the way this disease is treated.\n\n\n“I’m honored to represent my co-leaders on the CF program, Fred Van Goor and Sabine Hadida, and the more than a thousand people at Vertex who have worked over two decades to make the impossible possible. Together, we’ve brought five medicines including TRIKAFTA and now ALYFTREK® to tens of thousands of people with CF around the world — medicines that have fundamentally changed the course of this disease,” said Dr. Negulescu. “This award recognizes that collective effort and serves as a reminder of the work ahead in reaching all people with CF.”\n\n\nThis year’s recipients represent several major scientific inflection points in the modern history of CF — from research into the cellular mechanisms that cause CF all the way through to the first FDA-approved medicines that treat the underlying cause of the disease.\n\n\nEstablished in 1945 by Mary and Albert Lasker, pioneering biomedical research advocates, the Lasker Awards are now widely regarded as America’s preeminent biomedical research prize. Since 1945, the Lasker Foundation has awarded more than 400 prizes through the Lasker Awards, which recognize the contributions of leaders who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of human disease. Over the years, 101 Lasker Laureates have also received the Nobel Prize, includi...

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