MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) today announced an expansion of its existing marketing alliance with its Tokyo-based partner GeneFrontier Corporation. The expanded collaboration now also covers the generation of HuCAL-derived fully human antibodies for proteome research and target validation together with a renowned Japanese research organization as well as commercialization of resulting antibody products. Under the terms of the agreement, GeneFrontier will utilize MorphoSys's HuCAL GOLD antibody library to generate novel HuCAL antibodies against targets provided by its collaboration partner. For this purpose, the HuCAL antibody technology was installed at GeneFrontier's research laboratories within a research facility in Tokyo. GeneFrontier will provide MorphoSys with financial compensation for access to the HuCAL technology. GeneFrontier and MorphoSys agreed to share commercialization rights for all antibodies discovered in this project against targets identified and validated by GeneFrontier with its partner. Further financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
'GeneFrontier, as a local Japanese partner, is uniquely placed to target specific areas of the life science market, which would be not accessible for a foreign company. The logic behind this deal is in many respects the same as the research collaborations we have with other leading institutes, such as the recently announced alliance with The Burnham Institute,' commented Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys AG. 'Collaborating with GeneFrontier as a local partner in Japan has paid off for MorphoSys. In the past 16 months, they have helped us secure significant contracts with the pharmaceutical companies Daiichi Sankyo and Shionogi, as well as new customers and research relationships for AbD Serotec.'
'We are excited at this opportunity to expand our alliance with MorphoSys to apply the HuCAL technology to a number of our ongoing research programs with our partner,' commented Makoto Ogasawara, President & CEO of GeneFrontier Corporation. 'This state-of-the-art technology will significantly accelerate the target validation process, and lead to the rapid discovery of novel therapeutics.'