Sheffield University start-up in antibiotics deal with Morphosys

Licensing | Collaboration

Absynth Biologics has signed a licensing and collaboration agreement with Morphosys, which will form the basis of a development programme against infectious diseases at the German antibody company.

The agreement with Absynth provides access to targets for treating Staphylococcus aureus infections including MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus). MorphoSys will generate antibodies using its antibody library, which Absynth will then test in relevant disease models.

MorphoSys will be solely responsible for the development and partnering of the resulting compounds. Absynth will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for development-dependent milestone payments and royalties. Further financial details were not disclosed.

“This collaboration brings together Absynth’s novel, proprietary targets and expertise in S. aureus including MRSA and MorphoSys’s expertise in the generation of antibody drugs. We see these new targets as a very promising basis of antibody therapy for an increasingly serious medical problem,” said Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer of MorphoSys AG.

“Our goal is to create a valuable package of proprietary targets together with high-affinity antibodies, supported by compelling data, which will allow us to partner the program for subsequent development. The targets identified by Absynth represent a unique opportunity to generate value rather quickly and create out-licensing opportunities much earlier than in the areas of cancer and inflammation.”

Absynth’s genomics-based approach allows identification of previously overlooked targets, which are crucial to survival of a bacteria, are conserved across different bacterial strains and are accessible for antibodies. Absynth has demonstrated that monoclonal antibodies against the targets in-licensed by MorphoSys inhibit the growth of S. aureus and prompt the human immune system to eliminate bacteria via phagocytosis.

Absynth was founded in 2007 by the publicly-quoted technology commercialisation company, Fusion IP, around discoveries made by Simon Foster and Jorge Garcia-Lara at Sheffield University.