Voyager Therapeutics is reducing its workforce by 30 employees after Novartis decided to discontinue two discovery-stage programs in their gene therapy collaboration. The information was first reported by Fierce Biotech, citing a spokesperson from Voyager.
Last month, Voyager announced that Novartis had dropped the two programs but did not disclose which specific projects were affected or provide reasons for the decision. Voyager stated at the time that Novartis’ move would “not impact Voyager’s cash runway guidance.” Details about how many staff will remain after the layoffs and the financial impact of this reduction have not been provided. According to its most recent annual report, Voyager had 172 full-time employees at the end of 2024.
The partnership between Voyager and Novartis began in January 2024, with Novartis making an upfront payment of $100 million and committing up to $1.2 billion in potential milestone payments related to preclinical, development, regulatory, and sales achievements. Under this agreement, Voyager could also receive tiered royalties on future net global sales. The collaboration gave Novartis access to programs focused on spinal muscular atrophy and Huntington’s disease.
Voyager said last month that both these projects—as well as another program targeting an undisclosed indication—are still ongoing.
Outside of its work with Novartis, Voyager is advancing VY7523, an anti-tau antibody currently in Phase I trials for Alzheimer’s disease. In March, topline results showed that VY7523 was well-tolerated without serious adverse events and demonstrated dose-proportionate increases in serum concentration. Dosing continues in a multiple ascending dose study's final cohort for Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, Voyager is developing gene therapies aimed at silencing tau and apolipoprotein E for Alzheimer’s disease; these have yet to reach clinical testing.
Other companies in biopharma have also made recent staffing cuts amid industry challenges. On Wednesday, Mythic Therapeutics announced it would close operations and halt its only clinical trial. Last week, Geron Corporation laid off about one-third of its staff as part of efforts to support commercial activities for its approved cancer drug Rytelo.
A correction issued on December 18 clarified: "An earlier version of this story indicated that Voyager and Novartis were no longer in a partnership. This is incorrect. BioSpace regrets the error."
