The Intriguing Origins Of A Gene Therapy Biopharma

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

The first few years of a company’s history are usually filled with some unusual — and intriguing — milestones. Voyager Therapeutics is no exception.

Founded in February 2014, the company took the difficult path of pursuing treatments for debilitating diseases such as ALS and Parkinson’s. It planned to do so with science rooted in the burgeoning field of gene therapy. Again, not a common or easy choice. But Voyager’s science looked so promising early on that Third Rock Ventures, a VC firm focusing on biotech startups, not only invested $45 million to get the company up and running, but even provided an interim CEO in the form of industry heavyweight Mark Levin, cofounder of Third Rock, who had 30+ years of experience launching and building biopharmas.