Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NDAQ: VRTX) stands today as a top 20 pharma company with over a 100 billion market cap. But this biotech beacon has ridden a bumpy path to its current perch and, along the way, just may have authored a new playbook for life sciences R&D. Founded in 1989, Vertex’s rollercoaster story is most iconically characterized by the rise and fall of Incivek, a hepatitis C drug that reached 1 billion in sales faster than any before it, only to be withdrawn from the market just three years afte ...