Joshua Boger

Founder

“I have always been fascinated by science; by how things work, and how things don’t work, and most importantly, by how I can make things work better. Growing up, I was encouraged to believe that nothing was impossible and that I should act on that belief.”

“I started my professional career working as a medicinal chemist at Merck. My first project at Merck, which I started from scratch, soon became the largest research project in the company. I was fantastically lucky to join Merck in the very early days of “rational drug design”, at the dawn of the practical use in drug discovery of computer methods, automated organic synthesis and molecular biology. It was a great environment, collaborative and supportive of possibly wacky out-of-the-box ideas. In a little over ten years, at what alumni still call “Merck University”, I authored over 50 scientific publications and filed the first 24 of my 31 issued U.S. patents in pharmaceutical discovery and development.”

“I founded Vertex to take this interdisciplinary discovery approach to the next level. Vertex was founded on the principle that by bringing biophysics, computation, molecular biology and chemistry together in novel and truly integrated ways, we could discover and develop breakthrough medicines with greater certainty – and maybe somewhat faster – than ever before. Part of the idea was to free creative scientists to move beyond their disciplines – to allow them to contribute their ideas to any project, each with the goal of changing medicine. Although integrated drug discovery is celebrated (if not always practiced) throughout the industry today, this was a radical notion in 1989, when the norm still was departments formally isolated by scientific discipline.”

“Starting early on in my career, while at Merck, I was encouraged to publish and to give talks about my work. I’ve carried to Vertex this fearless openness to the outside scientific world. I’ve lectured widely in the United States, in Europe and in Asia on various aspects of drug discovery and development, and I am proud that Vertex continues to be viewed as a scientific leader in every field we enter, and from the discovery stage through development. In 2003, this innovative ethos was ratified satisfyingly when I was named one of forty “Technology Pioneers” worldwide at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”

“Today, Vertex has an important drug on the market (in HIV) and several drugs in different phases of clinical trials, and each could change the treatment of a serious disease in ways that were once unimaginable. As we seek to build Vertex into a commercial company, we benefit from a management team and Board with deep experience in biotech, pharma and other high growth industries. But as we grow we won’t lose the hunger for innovation that has been our hallmark.”

“Outside of Vertex I gravitate toward a certain sense of adventure as well (…calming compared to my day job): I’m an expert scuba diver (>400 dives), an underwater photographer, a competition-licensed formula race car driver and a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. On 26 April 2007 I was privileged to fly onboard the inspiring and historic zero-gravity flight with Professor Stephen Hawking.”

Joshua Boger

Advocate

“I believe it's our job as innovators of new and potentially life-saving medicines to advocate loudly on behalf of patients, both present and future. We also have an obligation to engage constructively with other key stakeholders to meet the challenges facing the industry and society and, specifically, the critical challenges within the healthcare system. In my various external roles, I seek to advance public knowledge and support for the biotech industry, to maintain and improve the cultural environment essential to all our sanity, to improve science and medical education and to foster public understanding of the importance of thoughtful and rigorous ethical considerations in everything we do. These ‘outside activities’ take considerable time, but I believe they are as connected to Vertex’s — and the industry’s — long-term success as anything else I could be doing.”

Dr. Boger is a dedicated member of the following organizations:

• BIO (the biopharmaceutical industry trade association), Chairman
• Healthcare Section, Chair
• Bioethics Standing Committee, Co-Chair
• New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI, a non-profit, healthcare-policy research organization based in Cambridge, MA), Founding Director & Secretary
• Massachusetts High Technology Council, Director and Vice-Chairman
• Hastings Center (the leading independent bioethics research institute, located in Garrison, NY), Director
• Massachusetts Workforce Development Board, Board member
• Celebrity Series (Boston’s premier performing arts series), Board member
• WGBH (public broadcasting’s leading station, Boston), Science Advisory Council
• Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT), Trustee
• Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Dean’s Advisory Council
• Harvard Medical School and School of Dental Medicine, Harvard College Overseers’ Visiting Committee
• Harvard Medical School, Board of Fellows