Voyager stock pops on getting $25M from Novartis under license deal
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- Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VYGR) said that Novartis (NYSE:NVS) has exercised an options to license novel capsids for use in gene therapy programs against two undisclosed neurologic disorder targets.
- The capsids were generated from Voyager's TRACER capsid discovery platform.
- Under the March 2022 license option agreement, Voyager previously received $54M upfront from Novartis for the option to license capsids for up to three central nervous system (CNS).
- With the Swiss pharma giant's option exercise on two targets, Voyager now gets an additional $25M option exercise payment and is eligible to receive up to $600M in potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, plus royalties.
- Voyager said the two Novartis targets licensed were different from targets in its internal and partnered pipeline.
- Novartis chose not to license a capsid for one CNS target under the original agreement, and all capsid rights linked to that target are returned to Voyager, the company added.
- In addition, over the next 18 months, Novartis has the right to expand the agreement to include options to license capsids for up to 2 additional rare CNS targets, subject to payments, according to Voyager.
- VYGR +8.62% to $7.94 premarket March 6