MorphoSys and Novartis extend antibody collaboration

In May 2004, the two companies forged a strategic antibody alliance to jointly develop new antibody-based therapeutics against a range of illnesses.

As part of the collaboration, Novartis took an equity stake in MorphoSys worth approximately E9 million and is today the company's largest shareholder. In August 2005, MorphoSys successfully concluded the first therapeutic antibody program with Novartis. Subsequently, work for several other antibody projects at MorphoSys was concluded successfully, resulting in multiple milestone payments for MorphoSys.

Within the framework of the extended agreement, Novartis commits to an increase in the number of new therapeutic antibody projects annually – resulting in increased levels of Novartis's funding for R&D at MorphoSys.

In addition, Novartis will have the option to receive access to the MorphoSys HuCal Gold library at an additional research site and will have access to a certain HuCal affinity optimization technology at the HuCal library installation sites at Novartis for optimization of non-therapeutic antibodies.

Furthermore, the agreement also provides for increased annual license fees, with commercial license fees, R&D milestones, and royalties on marketed antibody products remaining unchanged.

“We are very pleased to announce an expansion of our largest and our most productive collaboration to date,” commented Dr Simon Moroney, CEO of MorphoSys. “Expanding our existing collaborations is a cornerstone of our strategy and we have been very successful in this regard. The extended agreement provides a higher number of therapeutic antibody programs to be pursued in the years to come.”