Voyager announces Novartis exercised option to license novel capsids for $25M

Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR) announced that Novartis AG (NVS) has exercised its options to license novel capsids generated from Voyager’s TRACER capsid discovery platform for use in gene therapy programs against two undisclosed neurologic disease targets. Alfred Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Voyager said, "We view Novartis as a leader in the gene therapy field, so we greatly appreciate their decision to leverage our technology in their programs. Additionally, the non-dilutive funding provided through this capsid license, as well as recent agreements with Pfizer and Neurocrine Biosciences, further strengthens Voyager’s balance sheet and supports the advancement of our platform and pipeline." Under the terms of the license option agreement, originally announced in March 2022, Voyager previously received a $54M upfront payment from Novartis for the option to license capsids for up to three central nervous system targets. With Novartis’ option exercise on two targets, Voyager now receives an additional $25M option exercise payment and is eligible to receive up to $600M in associated potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, as well as mid- to high-single-digit tiered royalties based on net sales of Novartis products incorporating the licensed capsids. In addition, over the next 18 months, Novartis retains the right to expand the agreement to include options to license capsids for up to two additional rare CNS targets, subject to their availability, for a fee of $18 million per target. Under such an expansion, Voyager would be eligible to receive a $12.5M license option exercise fee for each target exercised, as well as future potential milestone payments of $300M per target and tiered mid- to high-single digit royalties on products incorporating the licensed capsids.