Martinsried/Munich, January 26, 2005
MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment) announced today a further expansion of its existing license agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY). Under the amended agreement, MorphoSys grants Bristol-Myers Squibb access to its HuCAL GOLD® library for use in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s pharmaceutical discovery programs for target characterization and validation, as well as for therapeutic and diagnostic antibody product development. Financial details were not disclosed.Prior to the most recent expansion of the existing license agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb had a non-exclusive license to use prior versions of MorphoSys’ HuCAL® library and the AutoCALTM system, which is MorphoSys’ established system for fully automated high-throughput antibody generation, installed at one of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s facilities in the U.S.
Bristol-Myers Squibb currently applies MorphoSys’ proprietary antibody technology in its pharmaceutical discovery programs for target characterization and validation. In addition, Bristol-Myers Squibb has an option to further develop promising antibody candidates arising from these programs as therapeutics and diagnostics.
“Bristol-Myers Squibb has now decided to upgrade to the most advanced version of our antibody library, HuCAL GOLD®,” commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer, MorphoSys AG. “We are delighted that Bristol-Myers Squibb continues to value our expertise in antibody development, as well as in supporting its target characterization and validation programs.”