Jazz Pharmaceuticals has sold a priority review voucher (PRV) for $200 million, the highest price recorded for such a transaction in nearly ten years. The buyer of the voucher was not disclosed. The company announced the sale during its presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, stating it would receive half of the net proceeds but did not specify who would get the remaining share or when exactly the deal took place, only confirming it occurred last year.
The PRV originated from Jazz’s acquisition of Chimerix in March 2025 for $935 million. Jazz received the voucher after Modeyso, an oral protease activator for diffuse midline glioma—a rare brain tumor—was approved by the FDA in August 2025.
Priority review vouchers are designed to encourage drug development for rare diseases by allowing companies to shorten FDA review times from ten months to six months. These vouchers are awarded upon approval of treatments targeting rare conditions and can be sold to other companies.
However, Congress did not renew the rare pediatric disease PRV program at the end of 2024, leading to its wind-down by the FDA in December that year. Dordaviprone secured a rare pediatric disease designation before expiration, making it eligible for a voucher when Chimerix filed its application in December 2024.
According to BioSpace analysis, prices for these vouchers have fluctuated significantly—from $21.2 million in June 2023 up to $158 million just before program renewal failed in August 2024, then down slightly to $150 million by February last year.
Proposed legislation aimed at renewing the program passed through the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in September last year but has stalled since then. Last month, similar efforts failed in the Senate due to disagreements among senators. Endpoints News reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders opposed Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s proposal and instead sought to include PRV provisions within a broader healthcare bill that did not gain Republican support.
BioSpace also found that 2024 saw record activity with companies spending $513 million on vouchers earned that year across all three FDA programs offering them.
"Rare Disease Biotechs Left in a Lurch as Congress Fails To Renew Priority Review Program
Congress did not reauthorize the rare pediatric disease priority review program at the end of 2024. Advocates say the ripple effect is already being felt across biopharma." – Annalee Armstrong
"Priority Review Vouchers: By the Numbers
A BioSpace analysis of all 80 priority review vouchers that have been handed out across the three FDA programs that offer them found that 2024 was the busiest year yet. Companies have disclosed spending $513 million on vouchers that were earned in 2024 so far." – Annalee Armstrong
