While gene ther­a­py com­pa­nies re­joice as the sec­tor gains trac­tion with ap­provals and a flur­ry of M&A ac­tiv­i­ty, one play­er is feel­ing the heat.

Back in 2015, Voy­ager Ther­a­peu­tics joined forces with Sanofi Gen­zyme in a deal worth up to $845 mil­lion ($100 mil­lion up­front + a po­ten­tial $745 mil­lion in mile­stones) to co-de­vel­op gene ther­a­pies for se­vere cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem dis­or­ders. But two years lat­er, the French drug­mak­er re­treat­ed, elect­ing to not pick up the op­tion to work on Voy­ager’s Parkin­son’s dis­ease pro­gram. (Last year, the FDA dis­ap­point­ed Voy­ager, telling the com­pa­ny that it was not open to an ac­cel­er­at­ed fil­ing on the Parkin­son’s drug on the ba­sis of Phase II da­ta — in­stead re­quir­ing an ad­di­tion­al piv­otal study.)

Sanofi Gen­zyme’s re­treat now re­sem­bles a de­ser­tion.

On Mon­day, Voy­ager $VY­GR said Sanofi Gen­zyme is walk­ing away from op­tions to ac­quire US co-com­mer­cial­iza­tion rights and ex-US de­vel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion rights to ex­per­i­men­tal Hunt­ing­ton’s dis­ease drug VY-HTT01 and to Friedre­ich’s atax­ia pro­gram VY-FXN01; and a fu­ture Voy­ager CNS or­phan pro­gram. In ad­di­tion, Voy­ager and Sanofi Gen­zyme’s al­liance on SMA has al­so been ter­mi­nat­ed —  the in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights of the pro­gram are be­ing re­turned/ex­clu­sive­ly li­censed to Sanofi Gen­zyme.

Con­se­quent­ly, Voy­ager has agreed to give $10 mil­lion up­front to Sanofi Gen­zyme, and an ad­di­tion­al $10 mil­lion mile­stone pay­ment up­on the po­ten­tial fil­ing of an ap­pli­ca­tion to test in hu­mans the Hunt­ing­ton’s dis­ease drug, VY-HTT01 or, cer­tain back­up com­pounds, as well as po­ten­tial roy­al­ties. In ad­di­tion, Voy­ager is al­so of­fer­ing Sanofi Gen­zyme ex­clu­sive dibs to se­lect AAV cap­sids from its ar­se­nal of drugs in de­vel­op­ment in up to two non-CNS in­di­ca­tions.

Re­cent­ly, Voy­ager has been busy shop­ping for oth­er part­ners. It has inked deals with Ab­b­Vie and Neu­ro­crine this year.

On Mon­day, Voy­ager trans­ferred the ex-US rights to the Sanofi-aban­doned Friedre­ich’s atax­ia pro­gram to Neu­ro­crine. The com­pa­ny al­so sig­naled that it plans to part­ner out its ALS gene ther­a­py, VY-SOD102, (and no longer plans to file an IND for it this year), to fo­cus its re­sources on Hunt­ing­ton’s.

“While it is un­clear ex­act­ly who might be look­ing to in-li­cense this pro­gram, Bio­gen might serve as an in­ter­est­ing can­di­date giv­en their ex­ist­ing work on SOD1 with their an­ti­sense oligonu­cleotide (ASO), tofersen, and close prox­im­i­ty giv­en both com­pa­nies are based in Cam­bridge. How­ev­er, if Bio­gen were to do this deal it might al­so be an ear­ly sig­nal to in­vestors that they view gene ther­a­py as strong al­ter­na­tive to their ASO port­fo­lio, po­ten­tial­ly ac­cept­ing that Zol­gens­ma is go­ing to be a strong com­peti­tor in SMA,” Baird’s Bri­an Sko­r­ney wrote in a note.

So­cial im­age: Shut­ter­stock

The average level of investment required for a biotech start-up to succeed is increasing every year, elevating the pressure even further on venture capital to make smart financial investments. Financial investment alone, however, does not always guarantee that exciting innovations can be transformed into real businesses that make a meaningful difference to patients.

Beyond just capital

At Astellas Venture Management (AVM) – a wholly-owned venture capital organization within Astellas, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area – capital is just one of the ingredients we offer to add value to our biotechnology investments and partnerships. We generally take a strategic investor approach for companies in our invested portfolio, providing access to expertise, technology and/or resources in addition to the injection of finance. An equity investment from AVM can include access to Astellas’ research and development (R&D) capabilities and expertise, and a global network of partner academic institutions and biotechnology companies, to help advance and accelerate the start-up’s innovation.

Unum $UMRX is working its way through a survival plan of sorts.

After getting hit with a trio of FDA holds in its brief public history and triggering its second pivot to a new lead drug program while laying off 60% of the staff, the troubled penny stock biotech Unum Therapeutics has hatched new plans to secure financial backing while lining up a go-forward strategy for the company.

First, Lincoln Park Capital Fund has agreed to buy up to $25 million of the long-suffering stock, as Unum directs. And the executive team — led by CEO Chuck Wilson — has put everything on the table for consideration: a sale, acquisition, merger, licensing deal, you name it. The ACTR707 program, meanwhile, is being formally wrapped up — their second failed lead program.