Shares of Voyager Therapeutics Inc. and its partner, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., fell in early trading Dec. 23 after Voyager announced an FDA clinical hold on the phase II Restore-1 trial of VY-AADC, an adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy Neurocrine is developing as NBIb-1817 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The trial had been paused since at least November as its data safety monitoring board reviewed MRI abnormalities in some study participants.
Bold up-fronts and even bigger milestones defined ambitious neurology deals Abbvie Inc. struck with Voyager Therapeutics Inc. in 2018 and 2019. With vectorized antibodies, they planned to target multiple indications tied to excess aggregations of tau and tragic synucleinopathies. Considerable progress was made, said Omar Khwaja, Voyager's chief medical officer. But despite millions of dollars invested in the programs, Abbvie has now decided to quit the venture, leaving Voyager to either go it alone or find a new partner in its work on the challenging indications.