Morphosys Achieves Milestone in GPC Biotech Cancer Collaboration First Morphosys Antibody to Show Efficacy in Animal Models
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Press Release Martinsried/Munich, July 19, 2001 MorphoSys achieves Milestone in GPC Biotech Cancer Collaboration First MorphoSys Antibody to show Efficacy in Animal Models MorphoSys (Neuer Markt: MOR) and GPC Biotech (Neuer Markt: GPC) today announced the achievement of a pre-clinical milestone in GPC Biotech’s antibody program for the treatment of specific blood cancers, the MHC class II positive B-cell lymphomas. GPC Biotech showed that the human antibody generated and optimized by MorphoSys from its proprietary HuCAL® library had significant in vivo efficacy in rodent xenograft-tumor models. The milestone triggers an undisclosed payment from GPC Biotech to MorphoSys. The selected fully human HuCAL® antibody showed high affinity to the MHC class II target and was selected for in vivo studies because it efficiently and rapidly killed a series of human blood tumors in in vitro assays, including Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Human Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells and the selected antibody were injected into immune deficient mice and the antibody was shown to completely inhibit tumor growth in the majority of the cases or significantly delay it. ”This antibody is the first ever HuCAL-derived antibody confirming efficacy in animal models, and as such, represents an important achievement for us”, added Dr. Thomas von Rueden, Chief Scientific Officer, MorphoSys AG. “Today’s announcement is another significant step towards establishing a broad pipeline of HuCAL-derived antibodies heading into clinical development over the coming years.” Sebastian Meier-Ewert, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Research of GPC Biotech AG said: “The data from the in vivo model are very promising indicating that the antibody may prove to be an effective treatment for cancer patients with weakened immune systems resulting from conventional chemotherapy or other common cancer treatments. The efficacy data suggests that the MHC class II specific antibody kills tumor cells without the need for an immunological effector mechanism. The next step will be further pre-clinical studies in order to aggressively move this program into clinical development.” MorphoSys develops and applies innovative technologies for the production of synthetic antibodies, which accelerate drug discovery and target characterization. Founded in 1992, the Company's proprietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL) technology is used by researchers worldwide for human antibody generation. The Company currently has licensing and research collaborations with Bayer (Berkeley, California/USA), Biogen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Centocor Inc. (Malvern, Pennsylvania/USA), Chiron Corp. (Emeryville, California/USA), DuPont Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Wilmington, Delaware/USA), Eos Biotechnology Inc. (San Francisco, California/USA), GPC Biotech AG (Munich/Germany), Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel/Switzerland), ImmunoGen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Millennium Inc. (Cambridge, Mass/USA) and ProChon Biotech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel). GPC Biotech AG is a genomics- and proteomics-driven drug discovery company focused on applying a number of proprietary genomic, proteomic and drug discovery technologies to accelerate the identification and validation of novel drug targets for development of mechanism-based drugs in oncology, infectious diseases and immunology. GPC Biotech has leading cell cycle expertise and a broad intellectual property position with 59 patents issued, that are wholly owned, co-owned or exclusively/co-exclusively licensed, and over 180 patents pending. Drug discovery alliance partners include: Aventis Pharma (PAVE.PSE), Bayer AG (BAY.FSE), DuPont Pharmaceuticals (DD-B.NYS), Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, the Altana AG (ALT.FSE) subsidiary Byk Gulden, Cell Genesys, Inc. (CEGE.NAS), Evotec OAI AG (EVT.FSE), MorphoSys AG (MOR.FSE) and Karo Bio USA (KARO.SSE). GPC Biotech AG is headquartered in Martinsried/Munich (Germany) with two wholly owned US subsidiaries in Waltham/Boston, MA and in Princeton, NJ. For further information, please visit the corporate website at: http://www.gpc-biotech.com. Statements included in this press release which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the safe harbour provided by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “expects” and similar expressions. The company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the company’s future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward- looking statements. Factors that may affect future operations and business prospects include, but are not limited to, clinical and scientific results and developments concerning corporate collaborations and the company’s proprietary rights and other factors described in the prospectus relating to the company’s recent public offering. For further information, please contact: Dave Lemus; Chief Financial Officer Lisa Richert; Head of PR Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-439 Tel.: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-122 Fax: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-5309 Fax: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-5122 [email protected] [email protected] www.morphosys.com www.morphosys.com Eva Grabner, IR & Corp. Com. Specialist Ernie Knewitz, Vice President Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 8565-2693 Tel.: +1 (212) 696 4455 ext. 204 Fax: +49 (0) 89 / 8565-2610 Fax: +1 (212) 696 9463 [email protected] [email protected] .