- Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR, Financial) expands its Alzheimer's disease portfolio with a new APOE-targeting program.
- The APOE program utilizes TRACER capsid technology to deliver a bifunctional payload, reducing APOE4 and increasing APOE2 expression.
- This addition brings Voyager's Alzheimer's franchise to four wholly-owned assets.
Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (VYGR) has announced the expansion of its Alzheimer's disease (AD) portfolio with the introduction of a new gene therapy program targeting apolipoprotein E (APOE), the strongest genetic risk factor for AD. This innovative program leverages Voyager's proprietary TRACER capsid technology to deliver a bifunctional payload aimed at reducing the expression of the high-risk APOE4 variant while simultaneously increasing the protective APOE2 variant.
With this new program, Voyager's Alzheimer's disease franchise now comprises four wholly-owned assets: VY7523, an anti-tau antibody currently undergoing clinical trials; VY1706, a tau silencing gene therapy advancing towards an investigational new drug (IND) application in 2026; a vectorized anti-amyloid beta (A?) antibody gene therapy; and the newly introduced APOE program.
The recent preclinical studies of the APOE gene therapy demonstrated significant reduction of APOE4 expression in key brain regions after a single intravenous injection, while maintaining overall APOE levels due to increased APOE2 expression. Voyager plans to present early data on this program at an upcoming scientific meeting in 2025.
"Our approach in targeting gene therapies across tau, amyloid, and APOE pathways allows us to strategically position Voyager in the evolving landscape of Alzheimer's treatment," said Alfred W. Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Voyager. "We anticipate that these pathways will each contribute significantly to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease as we continue to explore combination therapies for optimized patient outcomes."
