Joshua Boger

On the recommendation of Max Tishler, Boger was hired by Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in 1978. He initially worked on hypertension drugs,[3] developing a highly potent renin inhibitor.[8] An important step in this process was the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design.[9]

Within 2 years, Boger was leading a group at Merck where he developed novel rational drug design techniques and applied them to pharmaceutical discovery and development.[10][11] By 1987 Boger became senior director of basic chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, in charge of the departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology and Inflammation.[9]

In 1989, Boger founded Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He has served variously as its President, CEO and Chairman of the board.[12]

At Vertex, Boger pioneered an approach to structure-based rational drug design that changed the way that drug development occurred.[11][13] The analogy often used for structure-based design is that of a lock and key: first understand the type of lock involved, and then design a key to fit that lock. Researchers sought to understand the structure of the molecules that might affect disease processes (the "lock") and then to design drugs capable of interacting with the target molecules to alter their functions (the "key").[14] Employees worked in multi-disciplinary teams, combined technologies from biophysics, chemistry and computer science, and applied them to drug discovery[15] and the development of small molecule drugs.[16] As of 2003, Vertex was listed as one of forty worldwide Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum, for advancing drug discovery through this approach.[15]

While under Boger's leadership, the company worked on several potentially valuable drug treatments. Agenerase (amprenavir), an HIV protease inhibitor, was co-developed by Vertex and GlaxoSmithKline for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and approved by the FDA in 1999.[17] A second related drug was submitted for approval in 2002.[18] Lexiva (fosamprenavir) was approved by U.S. regulators on October 20, 2003.[19]

Vertex also developed Telaprevir, a protease inhibitor for treatment of hepatitis C.[20] Telaprevir works by disabling a protein that the virus requires for replication. Scientists at Vertex first published the crystal structure for the protease of the hepatitis C virus in 1996.[21][22] As part of the development process for the drug, the company developed an elaborate systems biology model in which they modeled hepatitis C's dynamics to the level of individual patient response.[23] Telaprevir was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as Incivek in May 2011.[24]

A third product, an orally administered pill for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, grew out of the acquisition of Aurora Biosciences Corporation by Vertex in 2001. The San Diego research company had a contract with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a nonprofit for patient advocacy and research, to create an assay for the disease. After the acquisition, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation approached Vertex about expanding the contract to search for a drug treatment. The potential market for such a drug was small, unlikely to return a profit. The problem required a new approach: finding a way to turn on a non-functioning protein. Boger's decision to investigate a new area has been treated as a case study by the Harvard Business School. It is one of the first examples of venture philanthropy funding, in which a charity buys equity in a company, which then tries to solve a specific problem for them. Vertex has since developed several possible drugs for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, the first of which was Kalydeco in 2012.[25][26]

Boger retired as CEO of Vertex as of May 23, 2009,[27] but remained on the Vertex Board of directors until June 2017.[28] The history of Vertex has been chronicled by journalist Barry Werth in The Billion-Dollar Molecule (1995)[9][3] and The Antidote.[29]

In May 2012 Boger became executive chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals.[5] Alkeus is developing a possible drug treatment for Stargardt disease, a progressive genetic condition that is a major cause of juvenile macular degeneration.[30][4]

As of 2014, Boger was the author of over 50 scientific publications and held 32 issued U.S. patents.[9]