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news.MorphoSys has exercised an option with Lanthio Pharma to acquire its lanthipeptide technology for drug discovery.
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The acquisition is part of an ongoing collaboration and option agreement signed by the two companies in November 2012.
As part of the acquisition, MorphoSys now has lanthipeptide technology and all related intellectual property.
Lanthio will continue to focus on building its portfolio of selected lanthipeptide drugs and will participate financially in MorphoSys’s exploitation of the technology.
MorphoSys chief scientific officer Dr Marlies Sproll said lanthipeptides can become a complementary addition to the company’s therapeutic antibody pipeline and will add more diversity to its drug discovery and development approaches.
"The decision to acquire this technology was made following a feasibility study to establish high quality and diverse lanthipeptide-based libraries," Sproll said.
"This brings us closer to adding members of this class of stabilized peptides to our drug portfolio."
MorphoSys chief financial officer Jens Holstein said the joint collaboration on a broader lanthipeptide platform has opened up an interesting opportunity to create further value for both the company and its partner.
"We will continue with this initiative and will seek other opportunities to invest and collaborate selectively with start-ups and smaller biotechs," Holstein said.