VRTX is trading at 52-week lows
Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX) are plummeting today, down 13% at $389.21, after the biotech company's non-opioid painkiller, Suzetrigine, matched the placebo in a phase 2 study.
The stock is trading at 52-week lows after the news, earlier falling as low as $377.85, and headed for its worst single-day percentage loss since October 2020. Today's drop has VRTX breaking below support at the $445 level, which has been in place since early October, and dropping into negative territory for 2024.
Over in the options pits, 3,590 calls and 5,739 puts have been exchanged, which is seven times the options volume typically seen at this point. The January 16, 2026 400-strike put is the most popular, with new positions being bought to open at the January 17, 2025 350-strike put.
Puts were much more popular than usual leading up to today, too. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), VRTX's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 2.43 ranks higher than all other readings from the past year.