Here’s Why Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy Sold Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX)

Hardman Johnston Global Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy” investor letter for the fourth quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Global equity markets delivered robust results in the quarter, backed by easing inflation trends and strong economic data. The Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy returned 2.91%, net of fees, compared to the MSCI AC World Net Index’s 3.29% gain. The Financials and Consumer Staples sectors contributed to the performance, while the Industrials and Consumer Discretionary sectors detracted from relative performance. In addition, please check the Strategy’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX). Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) is a biotechnology company focusing on developing and commercializing therapies for treating cystic fibrosis (CF). The one-month return of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) was 4.59%, and its shares gained 7.39% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 27, 2026, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) stock closed at $474.17 per share, with a market capitalization of $121.573 billion.

Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

“During the quarter we liquidated Corteva Inc., T-Mobile US, Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX). After meetings with FDA, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. does not see a path forward for a broad neuropathic chronic pain label for Journavx. This lowered potential TAM of Journavx in chronic pain. VX-993 (next generation NaV 1.8) phase II data failed to show competitive/significant benefits so VRTX will not pursue this as a monotherapy. Journavx is launching well in acute pain but still early days so stock reacted negatively to chronic pain updates. Outside of pain, all pipeline updates were positive across kidney and diabetes however given the slower ramp of pain we thought there were better opportunities elsewhere in the portfolio and picked Elanco over Vertex.”

In another article, we covered Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) and shared the list of best future stocks to buy for the long term. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.