By Colin Kellaher

 

Shares of Voyager Therapeutics Inc. jumped 15% in premarket trading Tuesday after the gene-therapy company said it inked a license option agreement potentially worth more than $1.7 billion with Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Voyager said that under the deal, Novartis has the option to license novel adeno-associated virus capsids generated from Voyager's RNA-driven Tracer platform for potential use with three undisclosed central-nervous-system targets, along with options to access capsids for two more targets to be agreed on in the future.

Voyager said it will receive an upfront payment of $54 million and will be eligible for up to $1.7 billion in option exercise fees and milestone payments, along with sales-based royalties.

The company last year signed a similar agreement with Pfizer Inc. targeting neurologic and cardiovascular diseases.

Shares of Voyager, which closed Monday at $3.93, were recently up 15% to $4.52 in premarket trading.

 

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 08, 2022 06:19 ET (11:19 GMT)

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