MARTINSRIED, Germany, Sept. 6, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX), today announced that within the scope of its collaboration with Centocor Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, Centocor has elected a new target molecule involved in immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases, against which MorphoSys will generate antibodies using its proprietary HuCAL GOLD(R) technology. Centocor will carry out pre-clinical and clinical development and subsequent marketing of resulting products. In exchange, MorphoSys stands to receive licensing and milestone payments, in addition to royalties. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In December 2000, MorphoSys and Centocor entered a collaboration to develop fully human antibodies in a wide range of therapeutic indications. This agreement was extended for another three years in December 2004. Within the scope of the collaboration, Centocor has access to HuCAL GOLD(R) for the development of therapeutic antibodies as well as for research purposes. Additionally, Centocor uses AutoCAL(TM), the MorphoSys-developed system for automated screening of the HuCAL(R) antibody library. Since the start of the collaboration MorphoSys has achieved four performance-related milestones to date.
"Today's announcement marks the start of yet another program in our successful collaboration with Centocor," commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys AG. "In this long-standing partnership, scientists from the two companies are building a broad pipeline of HuCAL(R)-based therapeutic antibodies."
About MorphoSys:
MorphoSys develops and applies innovative technologies for the production of synthetic antibodies which accelerate drug discovery and target characterization. Founded in 1992, the Company's proprietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL(R)) technology is used by researchers worldwide for human antibody generation. The Company currently has licensing agreements and/or research collaborations with Bayer (Berkeley, California/USA), Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb (New Jersey/USA), Centocor Inc. (Malvern, Pennsylvania/USA), GPC Biotech AG (Munich/Germany), Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel/Switzerland), ImmunoGen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Novartis AG (Basel, Switzerland), Pfizer Inc. (Delaware/USA), ProChon Biotech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel), Schering AG (Berlin/Germany) and Xoma Ltd. (Berkeley, California/USA). Additionally, MorphoSys is active in the antibody research market through its Antibodies by Design business unit. Antibodies by Design was founded in 2003 for the purpose of exploiting the MorphoSys non-therapeutic antibody markets. MorphoSys' activities in the research antibody segment were significantly strengthened through the acquisition of the U.K. and U.S.-based Biogenesis Group in January 2005. For further information please visit the corporate website at: http://www.morphosys.com/.
Statements included in this press release which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the safe harbour provided by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may affect future operations and business prospects include, but are not limited to, clinical and scientific results and developments concerning corporate collaborations and the company's proprietary rights and other factors described in the prospectus relating to the company's recent public offering.