Today’s Globe offers a run-down of the process that led to new hepatitis C drug from Vertex with the headline “On the long hard road to a breakthrough.” The story notes that the $4 billion covered research into other drugs, but VX-950 is the company’s star.

Last year, Vertex presented its most striking clinical trial results. Telaprevir, in combination with two drugs already used to treat the disease, cured 75 percent of patients with the most common form of the virus who had not previously been treated, compared with less than half of those whose treatment did not include telaprevir. The majority of patients were also able to shorten their treatment time by half, to six months.

But for all its benefits, telaprevir presents some complications. Patients taking it can suffer from a rash, and it has to be used in combination with the current treatment, a regimen that can cause flu-like symptoms. Other therapies that are in various stages of clinical development are being closely watched by industry analysts.

But, it will costs you:

The business section has a story on the company:

Patients are currently treated with a combination of two drugs: pegylated interferon and ribaviran. Vertex’s telaprevir or Merck’s drug, known as boceprevir, would be added to that "cocktail,’’ boosting its potency and acting directly against the virus in a bid to cure many patients. The drugs are expected to be priced at between $35,000 and $40,000 per patient, Leerink Swann estimates, and taken in combination with the current drugs, they promise to shorten the duration of treatment for large numbers of patients.

Apparently that leaves the company short on their plan to move their operations from Cambridge to an $800 million waterfront headquarters in Boston. The city of Boston will chip in $60 million to shift those jobs across the river.