MorphoSys AG announced today that within its collaboration with Novartis it has nominated the second therapeutic antibody program for joint pre-development. The pre-development agreement provides MorphoSys with the option to enter a formal co-development for the respective program with Novartis. Until the program reaches formal co-development status, Novartis carries all “project-related” costs. MorphoSys’s share of the funded research will add to revenues in its Proprietary Development segment.
The first pre-development candidate with Novartis was announced in September 2008, giving MorphoSys the opportunity to benefit from working with a very experienced pharmaceutical partner and strengthening its own drug development capabilities.
“The options on pre-development with Novartis are an important contribution to our proprietary development activities. Including this latest addition to our pipeline, we currently pursue nine proprietary programs and partnered candidates,” commented Dr Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG. “For the second time within this co-operation, we have chosen the opportunity to jointly develop an antibody candidate against a very promising target involved in inflammatory conditions, one of our core development areas. Over the past years, MorphoSys has built a strong proprietary development organization and progress in this segment is increasingly becoming visible.”
MorphoSys
