Freda C. Lewis-Hall, M.D. has been named executive vice president, Medicines Development, of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Lewis-Hall joins Vertex from Bristol-Myers Squibb, and has extensive leadership experience across multiple functional areas in the pharmaceutical industry. At Vertex, she will be responsible for regulatory affairs, clinical and non-clinical development, medical affairs and commercial development. Dr. Lewis-Hall will serve on the company’s executive management team and will report directly to Joshua Boger, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Vertex.

“We are pleased to welcome Freda to Vertex,” said Dr. Boger. “She has a proven track record as a leader of high-performing teams in the areas of clinical development, trial design and operations, regulatory, medical safety, product realization, program management and commercialization. I look forward to her contributions as we continue to advance our lead hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, telaprevir, through late-stage development and toward the market.”

Most recently, Dr. Lewis-Hall served as senior vice president, U.S. Pharmaceuticals, Medical Affairs at BMS where she led a team of nearly 500 people responsible for medical strategy and execution across five major therapeutic areas. Her team was involved in the development and launch of eight new drugs during the last four years. Previously, Dr. Lewis-Hall held leadership positions at Pharmacia, Eli Lilly and Co., the National Institute of Mental Health and at the Howard University College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry.

Also, John Alam, M.D., Vertex’s chief medical officer, will retire from the company in October 2008.

“I would like to thank John for his many contributions which have led us to where we are today,” said Dr. Boger. “In the 11 years that John has been with Vertex, we have grown from an early stage, research-focused company with a vision for great science to a company that is bringing forward breakthrough drugs for multiple major diseases with significant unmet medical needs. John has helped shape the medical thinking and strategy behind this transformation, and has been core to positioning us to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical company going forward.”