MorphoSys Announces Development Of New Antibody Platform Technology

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 20 Nov 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment) unveiled a multi-year technology development program which will lead to a significantly enhanced version of its antibody generation platform.

The new system, which involves several technology components and maintains its modular construction, represents a technological breakthrough in the advancement of antibody library technology and will offer unequaled opportunities for antibody-based drug development. The new technology suite will include enhancements involving substantially faster and more direct access to high affinity antibody drug candidates in the full IgG format compared to other antibody technologies on the market.

In conjunction with the publication of its plans for ongoing technology development, MorphoSys today announced the signing of a licensing agreement with Dyax Corp. covering a broad portfolio of antibody-related patents.

MorphoSys has developed several technologies relating to the generation of fully human antibodies, which provide for rapid and direct access to human antibodies as research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics. At the core of MorphoSys's technology offering is HuCAL, the Human Combinatorial Antibody Library, a collection of more than 12 billion functional, distinct, fully human antibodies. The new technology platform will comprise an upgrade of MorphoSys's current antibody library HuCAL GOLD to an enhanced version HuCAL Platinum(TM), as well as established screening and selection methods such as AutoCAL(R) and CysDisplay(R), the RapMAT(R) technology for faster antibody optimization, the antigen expression system AgX(TM) and the sequence analysis software SAS(TM) and additional technology modules currently in development.

Amongst a number of innovations in the HuCAL Platinum library, one key step incorporated during its construction was a complete sequence alignment using the latest human genome data for immunoglobulins. The underlying database is 5-fold larger than that used for the construction of HuCAL GOLD - the resulting improvement in the library's composition is expected to lead to even faster generation of high quality human antibodies for human health care.

"Into our new technology suite and the new library HuCAL Platinum(TM), we have incorporated the sum of our antibody generation experience gained over the past 15 years," commented Dr. Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG. "The new technology suite will enable us to significantly shorten selection timelines for therapeutic antibodies by providing direct access to fully human IgG antibodies. It represents a quantum leap forward in the development of our technology which will allow us to further consolidate our technological leadership in the human antibody field. It will be by far the most advanced approach to therapeutic antibody generation seen in the industry to date."

"Due to the success of therapeutic antibodies, the pharmaceutical industry is continuing to intensify its activities with this class of drug. MorphoSys is committed to furthering its technological leadership in this field with the fastest and most powerful antibody generation platform. HuCAL Platinum will be applied to establish an industry-leading pipeline of antibody-based drugs with our partners and, increasingly, for our own account," commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys AG.

About MorphoSys

MorphoSys is a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on the generation of fully human antibodies as a means to discover and develop innovative antibody-based drugs against life-threatening diseases. MorphoSys's goal is to establish HuCAL as the technology of choice for antibody generation in research, diagnostics and therapeutic applications. The Company currently has therapeutic and research alliances with the majority of the world largest pharmaceutical companies including Bayer-Schering, Boehringer Ingelheim, Centocor/Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche. Within these partnerships, more than 40 therapeutic antibody programs are ongoing in which MorphoSys participates through exclusive license and milestones payments as well as royalties on any end products. Additionally, MorphoSys is active in the antibody research market through its AbD Serotec business unit. The business unit has operations in Germany (Munich), the U.S. (Raleigh, NC) and U.K. (Oxford). For further information please visit http://www.morphosys.com/.

HuCAL(R) and HuCAL GOLD(R) are registered trademarks of MorphoSys AG

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.

MorphoSys