CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VYGR), a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing life-changing treatments for severe neurological diseases, granted restricted stock units and a non-qualified stock option to Robert Hesslein as inducements material to his entering an employment agreement with Voyager to serve as its general counsel. The inducement awards were approved by the Compensation Committee of Voyager’s Board of Directors in accordance with Nasdaq Stock Market Listing Rule 5635(c)(4) and became effective upon the commencement of Mr. Hesslein’s employment on April 1, 2019.
Mr. Hesslein received a restricted stock unit award for 28,125 shares of Voyager common stock and a non-qualified stock option to purchase 168,750 shares of Voyager common stock. The restricted stock units vest annually in equal installments over three years beginning on the first anniversary of the effective date of grant. The stock option has a ten-year term and an exercise price of $19.79 per share, which is equal to the closing price of Voyager’s common stock on the effective date of grant. The stock option vests over a four-year period, with 25% of the shares underlying the option vesting on the first anniversary of the effective date of grant and the remaining 75% of the shares underlying the option vesting in 36 equal monthly installments following the first anniversary of the effective date of grant. Vesting of the restricted stock units and the stock option is subject to Mr. Hesslein’s continued employment with Voyager. The restricted stock units and the stock option are subject to the terms and conditions of a restricted stock unit agreement and a stock option agreement, respectively.
About Voyager Therapeutics
Voyager Therapeutics is a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing life-changing treatments for severe neurological diseases. Voyager is committed to advancing the field of AAV gene therapy through innovation and investment in vector engineering and optimization, manufacturing, and dosing and delivery techniques. Voyager’s wholly-owned and collaborative pipeline focuses on severe neurological diseases in need of effective new therapies, including Parkinson’s disease, a monogenic form of ALS called SOD1, Huntington’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases related to defective or excess aggregation of tau and alpha-synuclein proteins in the brain. Voyager has strategic collaborations with Sanofi Genzyme, AbbVie and Neurocrine Biosciences. Founded by scientific and clinical leaders in the fields of AAV gene therapy, expressed RNA interference and neuroscience, Voyager Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information on Voyager Therapeutics, please visit the company’s website at www.voyagertherapeutics.com or follow @VoyagerTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Voyager Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. The use of words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “undoubtedly,” “project,” “intend,” “future,” “potential,” or “continue,” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For example, all statements Voyager makes regarding the initiation, timing, progress, activities, goals and reporting of results of its preclinical programs and clinical trials and its research and development programs, the potential benefits and future operation of the collaboration agreements with AbbVie and Neurocrine, including any potential future payments thereunder, its ability to advance its AAV-based gene therapies into, and successfully initiate, enroll and complete, clinical trials, the potential clinical utility of its product candidates, its ability to continue to develop its gene therapy platform, its ability to perform under existing collaborations with, among others, Sanofi Genzyme, AbbVie and Neurocrine and to add new programs to its pipeline, and the regulatory pathway of, and the timing or likelihood of its regulatory filings and approvals for, any of its product candidates, are forward looking. All forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions by Voyager’s management that, although Voyager believes to be reasonable, are inherently uncertain. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that Voyager expected. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those related to the initiation and conduct of preclinical studies and clinical trials; the availability of data from clinical trials; the expectations for regulatory communications, submissions and approvals, including antitrust approvals related to Voyager’s collaborations; the continued development of the gene therapy platform; Voyager’s scientific approach and general development progress; the sufficiency of cash resources; the possibility of timing of AbbVie’s exercise of its development and license options under its collaborations, and the availability or commercial potential of Voyager’s product candidates. These statements are also subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties that are described in Voyager’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as updated by its subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. Voyager undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Voyager Therapeutics Media & Investor Relations:
Matt Osborne
Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Communications and Investor Relations
857-259-5353
mosborne@vygr.com
Voyager Therapeutics, Inc.
