After signing up, you'll start to receive regular news updates from us.
MorphoSys Announces Expansion of Collaboration with Novartis
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
MorphoSys AG has announced an expansion of its existing therapeutic antibody collaboration with Novartis.
The original collaboration agreement provided for a three-year term with an option for Novartis to extend. The collaboration will now go through May 2011.
In light of the expanded collaboration, MorphoSys is currently reviewing the status of its financial guidance 2006 and will provide an update latest by July 28, 2006, the presentation of its Q2 results.
In May 2004, the two companies forged a strategic antibody alliance to jointly develop antibody-based therapeutics against a range of illnesses.
As part of the collaboration, Novartis took an equity stake in MorphoSys worth approximately EUR 9 million and is today the Company's largest shareholder.
In August 2005, MorphoSys 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 research and development 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, research and developmental milestones, and royalties on marketed antibody products remaining unchanged.
The non-exclusive option on internalization of the entire MorphoSys HuCAL® technology platform, offered to Novartis under the terms of the initial collaboration in 2004, will remain in place.
Triggering of this option would result in an additional payment by Novartis to MorphoSys.
"We are very pleased to announce an expansion of our largest and our most productive collaboration to date," commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer 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."
MorphoSys held a public conference call on Monday, June 26, 2006 at 10:00 CET to provide more information on this release. A replay of the conference call will be available on Company website.
