After Vertex disclosed that Thomas Graney notified the company on December 13 that he is resigning as CFO, Citi analyst Robyn Karnauskas said she sees "no reason for concern," noting that the company tells her that Graney resigned in order to pursue an opportunity at an emerging gene therapy company. The company, which also noted that interim CFO Ian Smith had previously held the CFO role, expects to initiate a CFO search shortly and will look both internally and externally, added Karnauskas, who keeps a Buy rating on the shares.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and TreeFrog Therapeutics announced that Vertex has obtained an exclusive license to TreeFrog's proprietary cell manufacturing technology, C-Stem, to optimize production of Vertex's cell therapies for type 1 diabetes, or T1D. TreeFrog and Vertex will collaborate to scale-up TreeFrog's process to produce and amplify cells for Vertex's T1D therapies. TreeFrog's proprietary technology platform, C-Stem, is designed to mimic the natural microenvironment, allowing cells to grow exponentially in 3D. The technology will enhance Vertex's ability to generate large amounts of fully differentiated cells for its portfolio of T1D cell therapies.