What happened
Shares of the gene therapy company Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR +21.66%) were down by a little over 18% from their intraweek high as of 11:44 a.m. ET Friday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Fortunately, the biotech's shares aren't falling in response to a negative material event.
Rather, Voyager's shares seem to be reverting to the mean following their enormous run-up earlier this month. As a refresher, the biotech's shares spiked by as much as 76% during the first two weeks of January as a result of the company's lucrative gene therapy deal with Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX 0.05%).
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
This gene therapy pact with Neurocrine netted the biotech an up-front consideration of $175 million, as well as potential development milestones payments worth up to $1.5 billion.
NASDAQ: VYGR
Key Data Points
The deal centers around Voyager's GBA1 gene therapy program for Parkinson's disease and other GBA1-mediated diseases.
Now what
Is Voyager's stock a buy on this latest weakness? I think so. While it is impossible to predict the course of clinical-stage gene therapy assets, Voyager is targeting some truly high-value indications, such as Alzheimer's disease, with its novel gene therapy platform.
What's more, the biotech has also signed collaboration deals with industry heavyweights Pfizer and Novartis in recent times. So there is a fair amount of interest in Voyager's novel platform.
All told, this precommercial-stage biotech ought to appeal to aggressive investors on the hunt for unusual growth opportunities.
