Voyant Biotherapeutics signs exclusive R&D collaboration agreement with Allergan

The agreement provides for a combination of upfront, research and milestone payments. Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to identify disease-associated pathways and targets for the development of new therapeutic agents to treat ocular disease.

A primary effort of this collaboration will be centered on new treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible vision loss worldwide.

"This relationship is special in that it is a true collaboration between CTM, Voyant and Allergan scientists," said Gregory Hageman, Ph.D., John A. Moran Presidential Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Executive Director of Moran’s CTM. "The CTM’s incredibly talented, multidisciplinary research team and its unique cadre of resources — including multiple, well-characterized patient cohorts, a repository of human eyes derived from greater than 6,000 donors, and extensive population-based records housed within the Utah Population Database — have provided a robust understanding of AMD and a solid platform upon which to conduct this collaboration."

"We are extremely excited about the significance of this collaboration," commented Dr. Randall Olson, CEO of the Moran Eye Center. "This collaboration could not have happened without the generous contributions of hundreds of people supporting the CTM in its quest to find new treatments for the prevention and treatment of AMD and other ocular diseases. This collaboration is further testament to the groundbreaking research that is being conducted at the Moran."

"This agreement represents the beginning of an innovative academic-industry partnership at the University of Utah and the Moran Eye Center," said Bryan Ritchie, Associate Vice President for Research Commercialization, Technology & Venture Commercialization, University of Utah. "It is our hope that this entrepreneurial collaboration between the university, Allergan and Voyant will not only generate breakthrough, commercially viable products that will produce long-lasting health, financial and employment returns for the parties, but will also attract other similar agreements from leading companies."

"We look forward to a productive collaboration with Voyant to identify and develop novel therapies for retinal disease. This agreement highlights Allergan’s commitment to academic and corporate partnerships to increase long-term innovation," said Scott Whitcup, CSO and EVP of R&D at Allergan.