Voyager Therapeutics Announces Licensing Agreement With Pfizer To Develop Gene Therapies

(RTTNews) - Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (VYGR) on Wednesday announced a licensing agreement with Pfizer for Voyager's TRACER AAV Capsids to develop gene therapies for certain neurologic and cardiovascular diseases.

The deal gives Pfizer the right to evaluate novel capsids selected for central nervous system and cardiac tropisms from Voyager's TRACER ((Tropism Redirection of AAV by Cell-type-specific Expression of RNA)) platform, and to license capsids for exclusive use in Pfizer's development of AAV gene therapies incorporating two undisclosed transgenes.

Voyager will receive $30 million as upfront payment and is eligible for up to $20 million in exercise fees for two options, exercisable by Pfizer within 12 months of signing.

In addition, Voyager is entitled to get up to $580 million on reaching certain targets associated with licensed products incorporating the two undisclosed Pfizer transgenes together with a Voyager licensed capsid. Voyager is also eligible to receive mid- to high-single-digit tiered royalties based on net sales of Pfizer's products incorporating the licensed capsids.