Novartis Steps up Therapeutic Antibody Research
Martinsried/Munich (Germany) and Cambridge, MA (USA), May 19, 2004
“Novartis is committed to therapeutic antibodies as key weapons in the medical armamentarium alongside small molecule drugs. We believe that these antibodies will become increasingly important components of our already strong pipeline in order to better address unmet medical needs with innovative medicines across a variety of diseases. We have chosen MorphoSys as the ideal partner for this element of our strategy because of their highly differentiated technology, which we believe will significantly strengthen and accelerate our antibody research,” stated Dr. Mark Fishman, President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.
MorphoSys scientists will work directly with Novartis scientists across the global sites of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), including the new world headquarters in Cambridge, MA, USA. The MorphoSys HuCAL GOLD® technology will be an integral part of Novartis’ drug discovery and development efforts, with the goal of identifying and developing multiple HuCAL GOLD®-derived therapeutic antibodies against many different targets. During the three year term of the agreement, which may be extended up to a total of five years, Novartis will fund internal research at MorphoSys that will generate and optimize HuCAL GOLD® antibodies against targets identified by Novartis. In addition, Novartis will have access to the current MorphoSys HuCAL GOLD® library at two of its sites. This technology, in conjunction with Novartis’ leading research and development capabilities, will potentially enable Novartis to shorten the time needed to generate novel therapeutic as well as research antibodies.
Additionally, under the terms of this collaboration Novartis will be MorphoSys’ first partner to receive a non-exclusive option on internalization of the entire MorphoSys technology platform, which would trigger an additional payment by Novartis to MorphoSys.
Underscoring the strategic nature of the collaboration, Novartis will make an approx. € 9 million investment in MorphoSys by purchasing non-interest bearing convertible bonds of MorphoSys. The convertible bonds can be converted into 490,133 common MorphoSys shares, to be issued from conditional capital. In addition, MorphoSys will receive over US$ 30 million in committed R&D funding and technology license fees over the first three years. MorphoSys also stands to receive technology license payments, research and developmental milestones, as well as royalties on marketed antibody products.
“This is our largest collaboration to date. We are delighted to see our HuCAL® technology become an integral part of drug development at Novartis,” commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys AG. “Building on the strengths of both companies, this collaboration will focus on the seamless transition of HuCAL® antibodies from target validation tools to optimized human therapeutic products. Together with Novartis, we will apply the HuCAL® technology on a large scale in treating disease.”