Vertex Pharmaceuticals Acquires ViroChem Pharma

On March 12, 2009, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of ViroChem Pharma Inc., a privately held company with two investigational HCV polymerase inhibitors in clinical development. ViroChem Pharma shareholders received US$100 million in cash and approximately 10.7 million common shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals was represented by Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., with a legal team that included Michael Fantozzi, Scott Samuels and Linda Rockett (buiness law), Richard Gervase (intellectual property) and Pamela Greene (benefits law).

Vertex was represented in Canada by a legal team from Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP that included Christopher Jones, Howard Levine, Charlotte Larose and Patrick Menda (business law); John Leopardi, Ron Richler and Emmanuel Sala (tax), Natalie Bussière and Elizabeth Boyd (employment, pensions and benefits law) and Julie Soloway (competition law) and a legal team from Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh that included Joy Morrow, Sanjay Goorachurn and George Elvira (intellectual property).

ViroChem Pharma was represented in Canada by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a legal team that included Mireille Fontaine, Clemens Mayr, Julie Elmlinger, Geneviève Guay and Simon Tabah (business law); Frédéric Harvey, Ylang Ha and and Annie Mailhot-Gamelin (tax); Alfred Macchione (intellectual property); Julien Saulgrain (business law/ intellectual property).

Virochem Pharma was represented in the United States by Philip Richter of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.