Boehringer Excercises MorphoSys Antibody Option
Tuesday November 18, 2:25 am ET
EDITED PRESS RELEASE
MUNICH -(Dow Jones)- Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and MorphoSys AG Tuesday announced that Boehringer Ingelheim has exercised its first option for the development of a therapeutic antibody.
MorphoSys will develop a therapeutic antibody for Boehringer Ingelheim against an undisclosed target molecule for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
MorphoSys is to select the antibody from the HuCAL GOLD library. Boehringer Ingelheim will take over the pre-clinical and clinical development and the subsequent marketing of the resultant products on which MorphoSys will earn milestones and royalties.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Boehringer Ingelheim and MorphoSys agreed to a cooperation in the field of therapeutic antibodies in February 2003. In the context of these agreements, MorphoSys received the exclusive, global license for certain patents owned by or under the control of Boehringer Ingelheim.
Specifically, MorphoSys acquired the rights to develop, produce and sell therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies that target ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule).
In the context of its own development programs, MorphoSys is developing MOR101 and MOR102, antibodies against ICAM-1, for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis or dermal burns.
MorphoSys will make milestone and royalty payments to Boehringer Ingelheim for the sale of therapeutic or diagnostic antibodies against ICAM-1. In exchange, Boehringer Ingelheim received exclusive licenses for therapeutic antibodies against two undisclosed target molecules. Boehringer Ingelheim wil make milestone and royalty payments to MorphoSys for the development and sale of HuCAL GOLD antibodies produced by MorphoSys.
"We are pleased to utilize the distinct advantages of the HuCAL technology developed by MorphoSys to rapidly identify therapeutically active antibodies to this unique target molecule," said Dr Andreas Barner, Member of the Board of Managing Directors and Head of Research, Development and Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim.
"This collaboration will strengthen our capability to further generate innovative new biological entities for the treatment of autoimmune an inflammatory diseases."
"We look forward to working with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop a human therapeutic antibody against this very interesting target," commented Dr Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer at MorphoSys AG.
"We are delighted with our relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim, which has given us exclusive rights to antibodies against ICAM-1 as well as, with the current project, a further opportunity to broaden our pipeline of partnered compounds." ... |
