Business
Voyager Therapeutics Appoints Alfred W. Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer
Renowned neuroscientist brings pioneering drug development expertise and vision to emerging leader in next-generation AAV gene therapy CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March
About this update from Voyager Therapeutics, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Renowned neuroscientist brings pioneering drug development expertise and vision to emerging leader in next-generation AAV gene therapy\nCAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: VYGR), a gene therapy company developing life-changing treatments and next-generation adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids, today announced the appointment of Alfred W. Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., as chief executive officer (CEO). Dr. Sandrock succeeds Michael Higgins, who served as interim CEO since June 2021, and continues to serve as Chairman of the Voyager Board of Directors. “I am excited to welcome Al Sandrock as CEO. Al is a global thought leader in neuroscience with an impressive track record bringing transformative new medicines to patients,” said Mr. Higgins. “His success pioneering the development of numerous innovative neurological treatments, and particularly, his skill in advancing promising candidates from early-stage research toward clinical proof of concept, is perfectly suited for Voyager. He is the ideal leader to amplify the impact of our proprietary TRACERTM AAV capsids that we believe can overcome many of the limitations of first-generation AAV gene therapy and create meaningful therapeutics for patients.” “I’m honored to lead Voyager, a company with the promise to pioneer a new frontier in modern medicine and help make AAV gene therapy a new standard of patient care for many diseases,” said Dr. Sandrock. “Years of dedicated research by the Voyager team has led to exciting progress in the field; the next generation of novel AAV capsids with enhanced tissue tropisms has the potential to widen the therapeutic window of gene therapy for a broad range of diseases. This important work has led to licensing agreements with Novartis and Pfizer and developments for Voyager’s own internal pipeline. We intend to establish human proof of concept across a range of serious diseases, with an emphasis on neurological targets.” Dr. Sandrock was appointed to the Voyager Board of Directors in February 2022, following 23 years at Biogen where he identified and developed novel therapies for a variety of serious diseases. He served an eight-year term as chief medical officer at Biogen and was ultimately appointed head of research and development. Over the course of his tenure, he led the discovery, developme...