BRIEF—Novartis exercises options on Voyager targets

Gene therapy company Voyager Therapeutics has received a milestone payment of $25 million after Novartis exercised its options to license two novel capsids.

Under the terms of the licensing deal,  agreed in March 2022, Novartis gained rights to license capsids generated from Voyager’s Tracer discovery platform, for use in gene therapy programs against two targets in neurology.

Voyager will be eligible to receive up to $600 million in associated potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus royalties on net sales of any resulting products.

Novartis elected not to license a capsid for one CNS target under the original agreement, and all capsid rights with respect to that target have been returned to Voyager.

Voyager chief executive Alfred Sandrock said: “We believe intravenously-delivered, brain-penetrant capsids such as those generated through Voyager’s Tracer capsid discovery platform are critical to enable utilization of gene therapy for neurologic diseases.”