Collaboration
MorphoSys has announced that it has started two more antibody programmes under its collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo, after the Japanese pharma company excercised two options under an existing agreement.
Daiichi Sankyo will carry out pre-clinical and clinical development and has worldwide marketing rights for all resulting products. MorphoSys receives license fees and stands to receive milestones and royalties. Further financial details were not disclosed.
“The addition of these new oncology programmes promises to strengthen still further our partnered antibody pipeline,” said Simon Moroney, CEO of MorphoSys.
The two companies first agreed the collaboration in March 2006. In March 2008, Daiichi Sankyo exercised its option to extend the contracting period until March 2011.
In May 2008, Daiichi Sankyo acquired the German biotechnology company U3 Pharma AG, a spin out from Max-Planck. The two new targets that Morphosys will now work on were part of U3 Pharma’s portfolio.
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