MARTINSRIED, Germany, Oct. 27, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt:MOR) (Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) today announced the appointment of Dr. Marlies Sproll (47) as Chief Scientific Officer and a member of its Management Board. The appointment will take effect on November 1, 2005. Dr. Sproll will lead MorphoSys's departments of research and development, as well as alliance management. Dr. Sproll brings to the job more than 15 years of experience in antibody research and discovery, target validation, and pre-clinical and clinical development of biologicals. Before joining MorphoSys, Dr. Sproll worked for seven years at the Vienna research facility of Boehringer Ingelheim. After initially being employed as laboratory head, she later took over international project management for several development projects of therapeutic antibodies as well as antibody conjugates and vaccines in the field of oncology. From 1988 to 1993, Dr. Sproll was lab leader at Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, where she was involved in the pre-clinical development of therapeutic antibodies.
Dr. Sproll has a PhD from the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, and was awarded a Doctor of Natural Science by the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Subsequently, she held research positions as a post-doctoral fellow at the Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, Germany.
Dr. Sproll joined MorphoSys in October 2000 as R&D department head. In September 2004, Dr. Sproll was promoted to Senior Vice President R&D, heading the complete research and development department of MorphoSys AG. In this role, she reported directly to Dr. Simon Moroney, the Company's Chief Executive Officer.
"Marlies is an outstanding leader and has proven her suitability for the position by her accomplishments over the last few years, which have contributed substantially to the Company's success," commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys. "She brings to the job a deep understanding of therapeutic antibodies and familiarity with our proprietary HuCAL(R) technology. On behalf of my colleague Dave Lemus, I am delighted to be able to welcome her to the Management Board of MorphoSys. We look forward to working with her on furthering the growth of the Company."
Commenting on her appointment, Dr. Sproll said: "I am excited by the opportunity of joining the Management Board of MorphoSys I am looking forward to heading the Company's high-quality scientific team and to further contribute to our continued success in the discovery and development of HuCAL(R)-based products."
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), Novoplant GmbH (Gatersleben, Germany), Pfizer Inc. (Delaware/USA), ProChon Biotech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel), Schering AG (Berlin/Germany), Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Osaka/Japan), Xoma Ltd. (Berkeley, California/USA) and others. 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.