Jazz Pharmaceuticals has sold a priority review voucher (PRV) for $200m, suggesting the uptick in market prices for the regulatory fast-track ticket seen over recent years shows no signs of slowing.
Speaking at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2026, held in San Francisco, US, from 12 to 15 January, CEO Renee Gala revealed that Jazz sold the voucher but did not disclose the buyer or the month the transaction took place. As per the presentation, half of the gross proceeds will go to Jazz. The US rare disease specialist ended Q3 2025 with more than $2bn in cash and investments.
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“We fully expect to announce one or two or more deals in 2026. We do aim to continue growing our business and optimising our future value through corporate development,” Gala said at the conference.
Jazz gained the voucher upon US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Modeyso (dordaviprone) for the treatment of an aggressive type of brain tumour in August 2025. The company inherited the therapy during its acquisition of Chimerix for $935m last March. Gala expects more than $500m peak potential in revenue for Modeyso.
PRVs, which reduce the FDA review time of a drug application from the usual ten months to six months, are given to companies that spend time and money developing a drug for neglected tropical diseases, rare paediatric diseases, or material threat medical countermeasures.
Though critics have highlighted issues, the vouchers provide an important regulatory framework to encourage small biotech R&D activity in the qualifying disease areas.
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By GlobalDataA main incentive of the framework is the ability to sell vouchers to other pharma companies or biotechs. The highest price point for PRV sales occurred in 2015, when they were scarce. That was the year AbbVie bought one from United Therapeutics for $350m – to date the highest free commanded for a voucher.
Average deal value stabilised at around $100m for many years, though prices have risen in recent times. Zevra sold a voucher for $150m in February 2025, Abeona offloaded one for $155m in May 2025, and Bavarian Nordic gained $160m from a sale in June 2025. In all cases, the buyer was not disclosed, marking a departure from previous times where participants in transactions were more transparent.
In December 2025, the US House of Representatives passed a new piece of legislation that reauthorised the rare paediatric disease PRV programme. However, the Senate did not pass it, meaning the framework remains in regulatory limbo after it expired in 2024.
The uncertainty comes as the FDA launched a new PRV framework to expedite the drug approval process for pharma companies prioritising US interests. The new scheme, called the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) programme, was introduced in June 2025. The scheme seeks to shorten FDA review time for a new drug application from between ten and 12 months to up to two months.
So far, big pharma companies have been the main recipients of vouchers. On 15 January, Reuters reported that Sanofi and Eli Lilly are facing delays in drug reviews under the CNPV scheme.
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