BOSTON– Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) announced Thursday that Senior Vice President Paul Negulescu has been awarded the 2025 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his role in developing TRIKAFTA®, a triple-drug combination therapy that has transformed the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF).
Negulescu shares the prestigious award with Jesús (Tito) González, a former Vertex scientist, and Michael Welsh, Professor of Internal Medicine-Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at the University of Iowa. The Lasker Foundation recognized their collective contributions in advancing therapies that directly address the underlying cause of CF — a major milestone in modern clinical medicine.
“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,” Negulescu said. “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. This award recognizes that collective effort and serves as a reminder of the work ahead in reaching all people with CF.”
Vertex has developed five transformational medicines for cystic fibrosis to date, with TRIKAFTA and ALYFTREK leading the way in improving outcomes and life expectancy for patients worldwide. The recognition reinforces Vertex’s status as a global leader in precision medicine and highlights its commitment to developing therapies for rare and serious diseases.
The Lasker Awards, established in 1945, are regarded as America’s most prestigious biomedical research prizes. More than 400 awards have been given to date, with 101 Lasker Laureates later receiving the Nobel Prize, including 13 since 2018. This year’s awardees mark several pivotal inflection points in CF research, from understanding cellular mechanisms to the development of the first FDA-approved therapies that modify the disease at its root cause.
