Shares of biotechnology company Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VYGR) jumped nearly 33% in the early session today after it entered into a collaboration and licensing deal worth nearly $1.3 billion with Novartis Pharma, a subsidiary of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS).
The collaboration will focus on discovering and developing new approaches for treating Huntington’s disease (HD) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Under the deal, Novartis will receive a target-exclusive license to access VYGR’s TRACER capsids and other IPs for the respective diseases. Further, the two companies will collaborate to advance a preclinical gene therapy candidate for Huntington’s disease.
According to the terms, Voyager will receive an upfront payment of $100 million from Novartis. The company also stands to make up to $1.2 billion in different milestone payments and tiered royalties on product net sales. Apart from access to Voyager’s TRACER capsids, Novartis will also receive global rights to VYGR’s AAV gene therapy in Huntington’s disease. While Voyager will be responsible for the preclinical advancement of the program, Novartis will have the onus of preclinical development and commercialization efforts.
Is Voyager Therapeutics a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Overall, the Street has a Strong Buy consensus rating on Voyager therapeutics, and the average VYGR price target of $14.40 points to a significant potential upside in the stock. Today’s price gains come on top of a nearly 18% jump in Voyager shares over the past month.
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