Voyager Therapeutics – a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing neurogenetic medicines – today announced a strategic collaboration and capsid license agreement with Novartis Pharma AG, a subsidiary of Novartis AG, to advance potential gene therapies for Huntington’s disease (HD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). And Voyager will provide Novartis a target-exclusive license to access Voyager’s TRACER capsids and other intellectual property for the respective diseases. Voyager and Novartis will collaborate to advance a preclinical gene therapy candidate for HD.
Novartis has previously exercised options to license novel capsids generated from Voyager’s TRACER capsid discovery platform for use in gene therapy programs against two undisclosed neurological disease targets.
Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis agreed to pay Voyager $100 million of consideration up front, including a $20 million purchase of newly issued equity in Voyager. And Voyager is eligible to receive up to $1.2 billion in preclinical, development, regulatory, and sales milestones and tiered royalties on global net sales of products incorporating Voyager’s TRACER capsids.
Novartis will obtain target-exclusive access to Voyager’s TRACER capsids related to SMA for the duration of the agreement and be responsible for all development and commercialization. And Novartis will also receive worldwide rights to Voyager’s AAV gene therapy for HD, utilizing Voyager’s TRACER capsids and proprietary payloads. Voyager will be responsible for preclinical advancement, and Novartis will be responsible for all clinical development and commercialization for the HD program.
Chestnut Partners served as Voyager’s exclusive financial advisor on this deal.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are thrilled to expand our existing relationship with Novartis, a global leader in the gene therapy field. Combining the proven capabilities of Novartis in gene therapy development and commercialization with Voyager’s next-generation TRACER capsids and payloads could enable the advancement of important new therapies for patients. In addition, the consideration Voyager will receive from this collaboration will strengthen our balance sheet and extend our runway into mid-2026.”
— Alfred W. Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Voyager
“We look forward to broadening our work with Voyager to help bring forward novel, high-impact gene therapies with the potential to improve the lives of patients affected by severe neurologic conditions. We believe Voyager’s TRACER capsids hold promise for enabling next-generation gene therapies for diseases of the central nervous system, aligning well with our deep neuroscience expertise and gene therapy leadership at Novartis.”
— Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis
