Novartis and Voyager Therapeutics have entered into an agreement to advance potential gene therapies for two neurological diseases, with the deal potentially worth over $1.2bn.
Swiss-based drugmaker Novartis previously exercised options to licence capsids generated from Voyager’s RNA-based screening platform for use in gene therapy programmes against two undisclosed neurological disease targets.
Voyager says its TRACER capsid discovery platform “enables rapid discovery of AAV capsids with robust penetration of the blood-brain barrier and enhanced central nervous system tropism”.
The latest agreement will see Voyager give Novartis a target-exclusive licence to access its TRACER capsids and other intellectual property for Huntington’s disease (HD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and both companies will collaborate to advance a preclinical gene therapy candidate for HD.
Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis, said: “We look forward to broadening our work with Voyager to help bring forward novel, high-impact gene therapies with the potential to improve the lives of patients affected by severe neurologic conditions.
“We believe Voyager’s TRACER capsids hold promise for enabling next-generation gene therapies for diseases of the central nervous system…”
Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will pay $100m upfront to Voyager, which will also be eligible to receive up to $1.2bn in milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on global net sales of products incorporating its TRACER capsids.
In exchange, 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 commercialisation.
Novartis will also receive worldwide rights to Voyager’s AAV gene therapy for HD, with Voyager responsible for preclinical advancement and Novartis responsible for all clinical development and commercialisation for the HD candidate.
Alfred Sandrock, chief executive officer of Voyager, said: “Combining the proven capabilities of Novartis in gene therapy development and commercialisation with Voyager’s next-generation TRACER capsids and payloads could enable the advancement of important new therapies for patients.”
The announcement comes less than two months after Novartis entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Legend Biotech for global rights to a selection of CAR-T cell therapies targeting DLL3, with the deal potentially worth over $1bn.