On 26th February, the biotechnology company Voyager Therapeutics announced that as part of their collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company Neurocrine Biosciences, they have selected a lead development candidate in their Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) program.
The candidate is a replacement for the mutated gene FXN (which codes for the protein frataxin) inside a protein shell known as a capsid. This newly selected candidate is part of the Voyager Therapeutics and Neurocrine Biosciences capsid discovery platform TRACER™. TRACER-generated capsids have shown the ability to enter cells and parts of the brain and central nervous system that are traditionally hard to reach.
The companies expect the FA program to advance into its first-in-human clinical trials in 2025.
Read the press release from Voyager Therapeutics here.