ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,421,251, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Boston).

"Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator modulating agents" was invented by Alexander Russell Abela (Escondido, Calif.), Sunny Abraham (San Diego), Corey Don Anderson (Brighton, Mass.), Vijayalaksmi Arumugam (San Marcos, Calif.), Jaclyn Chau (San Diego), Jeremy Clemens (San Diego), Thomas Cleveland (San Marcos, Calif.), Timothy A Dwight (Quincy, Mass.), Bryan A. Frieman (La Jolla, Calif.), Peter Grootenhuis (Del Mar, Calif.), Sara Sabina Hadida Ruah (La Jolla, Calif.), Yoshihiro Ishihara (San Diego), Paul Krenitsky (San Francisco), Jason McCartney (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.), Vito Melillo ...