Sanofi walks away from Voyager’s phase 2/3 Parkinson’s gene therapy

Sanofi has decided to walk away from the Parkinson’s gene therapy covered by its $845 million alliance with Voyager Therapeutics. This gives Voyager the full global rights to VY-AADC.

Under Voyager’s Collaboration Agreement with Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi Genzyme had an exclusive option for ex-U.S. development and commercial rights to VY-AADC. Based on Voyager’s understanding that because this option did not include rights in the U.S., Sanofi Genzyme informed Voyager that it has decided not to exercise its rights to this program.  As a result, Voyager gains full worldwide development and commercial rights to VY-AADC for the treatment of advanced Parkinson’s disease.

Steven Paul, Voyager’s president and chief executive officer said, "We are very pleased to gain full worldwide rights to our Parkinson’s disease program that recently demonstrated robust and durable clinical effects from the ongoing Phase 1b trial. Sanofi Genzyme remains an important collaborator for Voyager, and we remain fully committed to progressing our Huntington’s disease and Friedreich’s ataxia programs under the ongoing collaboration."

"There is a significant unmet need for Parkinson’s disease patients, particularly during the advanced stages of the disease where there are hundreds of thousands of patients globally. With a one-time administration that has been well tolerated, VY-AADC could penetrate the estimated 10,000 deep brain stimulation procedures worldwide each year for Parkinson’s disease and the further tens of thousands of advanced patients who do not elect to undergo deep brain stimulation. We are pleased to progress this exciting program towards the planned start of the global, pivotal Phase 2-3 program later this year. We plan to describe our next steps with our Parkinson’s program, and other corporate highlights, at our upcoming third quarter conference call." 

Voyager’s total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities as of June 30, 2017 were $141.3 million. Based on the company’s current operating plan, Voyager continues to expect to end 2017 with total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities of approximately $90 million to $100 million and continues to project that its existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities will be sufficient to fund operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into 2019.