AbbVie Terminates $134M Neurodegenerative Antibody Collaborations with Voyager Therapeutics

Compiled by Keke

On August 3, Voyager Therapeutics announced that its collaboration with AbbVie on tau protein and alpha-synuclein vectorized antibodies had been terminated (reasons not disclosed). Voyager will retain full rights to its vectorization technology and the novel vectorized antibodies developed under the partnership. Affected by the breakup of this collaboration, Voyager’s stock price fell 12% in pre-market trading and continued to drop nearly 9% after the market opened.

In 2018, Voyager Therapeutics entered into its first strategic agreement with AbbVie to co-develop and commercialize anti-tau vector antibodies. Tau pathology has emerged as a focal point following repeated setbacks in targeting amyloid-beta. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, abnormal tau tangles typically appear in the late stages of the disease and are associated with progressive neurodegeneration and disease severity. The collaboration aims to develop a potential one-time treatment leveraging Voyager’s gene therapy platform to produce adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. AbbVie made an upfront payment of $69 million to Voyager Therapeutics. Under the terms of the agreement, Voyager is also eligible for up to $155 million in preclinical and Phase I milestone payments, as well as $895 million in development and regulatory milestone payments.

In 2019, Voyager and AbbVie expanded their collaboration to jointly develop vector-expressed antibodies targeting pathological forms of alpha-synuclein for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other disorders characterized by the abnormal accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein. Under this collaboration, AbbVie paid an upfront fee of $65 million, with Voyager eligible to receive $245 million in preclinical and Phase 1 milestones, $728 million in development and regulatory milestones, and $500 million in commercial milestones.The two collaborative transactions are valued at over $2.6 billion, with AbbVie having already paid more than $134 million in upfront payments.

With the conclusion of the collaboration, Voyager Therapeutics regained full clinical development and commercialization rights for certain candidate products developed within the scope of the partnership, allowing it to pursue related research and development initiatives either independently or in collaboration with other entities. Voyager did not disclose the reasons for terminating the collaboration in its announcement; however, given the high number of drug candidates that fail to advance beyond the preclinical stage in this therapeutic area, the termination may not be entirely surprising. Through the termination agreement, AbbVie avoided certain contingent payments that would have become due upon the initiation of clinical testing.

Voyager Therapeutics’ official website states that the company is committed to advancing the application of AAV gene therapy for severe neurological disorders—including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, and other serious neurological conditions—through innovation and investment in vector engineering and optimization, manufacturing, and delivery technologies. Currently, its most advanced candidate in the development pipeline is VY-AADC, an AAV-based gene therapy undergoing Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences, another gene therapy aimed at enabling Parkinson’s patients to convert levodopa into dopamine may initiate registrational clinical trials this year.

References:

1、AbbVie Terminates Alzheimer's Pact with Voyager Therapeutics

2、AbbVie shrugs off $134M cash deals, quitting a neuro R&D pact with Voyager Therapeutics on vectorized antibody treatments