Voyager Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing neurogenetic medicines, entered 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). Voyager will provide Novartis a target-exclusive license to access its TRACER capsids and other intellectual property for the respective diseases, and the companies will collaborate to advance a preclinical gene therapy candidate for HD.

 

Novartis will pay Voyager $100 million upfront, including a $20 million purchase of newly issued equity in Voyager. Voyager is eligible to receive up to $1.2 billion in preclinical, development, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as royalties on 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 will be responsible for all development and commercialization. Novartis will also receive worldwide rights to Voyager’s AAV gene therapy for HD, leveraging 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.