MorphoSys AG is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 1992. The company is headquartered near Munich, Germany and has a wholly owned subsidiary, , in Boston MA in the US, where it is building a commercial organization. The company has various antibody, protein and peptide technologies that it uses to discover and develop both proprietary and partnered drug candidates. The company claims to have more than 100 drugs in its wider pipeline that are being investigated for a variety of diseases. While many of these are being developed in partnership with pharma and biotech companies, MorphoSys also has a proprietary pipeline with a focus on cancer. MorphoSys AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the US Nasdaq stock exchange.
History
The Company was founded in 1992. In 1999, MorphoSys listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "MOR". In 2004, MorphoSys and Novartis entered into a strategic partnership for the research and development of biopharmaceuticals, which was expanded in 2007. Additional discovery partnerships included: with Bayer, Roche, Centocor, Schering AG and Pfizer. In 2008, the company’s first proprietary antibody MOR103 entered clinical development. Following the publication of promising results in rheumatoid arthritis, MorphoSys signed a license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline for MOR103. In 2019, GlaxoSmithKline initiated a phase 3 clinical development program with MOR103. In 2010, MorphoSys signed a license agreement with for MOR208. In July 2017, the first of MorphoSys’ platform drugs received US marketing approval. Guselkumab, which was developed and is being commercialized by Janssen Biotech a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, was first approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in the United States, the European Union and Canada. In April 2018, following a US initial public offering in which the company raised $239 million, American Depositary Shares of MorphoSys began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange, also under the symbol "MOR." In 2018, the company established a wholly owned US subsidiary, , to prepare for the planned commercialization of tafasitamab, subject to FDA approval. In December 2019, based on positive clinical trial results, the company submitted a Biologics License Application to the FDA for tafasitamab in combination with lenalidomide for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The submission was accepted for filing in February 2020, and a decision on the filing is expected in August 2020. In January 2020, MorphoSys and Incyte Corporation signed a collaboration and license agreement for the global development and commercialization of tafasitamab. On March 3, 2020, the agreement received antitrust clearance and thus became effective.
Pipeline
As of December 2019, MorphoSys had 116 drug candidates, 28 of which were in clinical development. Tafasitamab is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against CD19 in clinical development for the treatment of B-cell malignancies. Tafasitamab is being or has been evaluated in several clinical trials, alone and in combination with other anti-cancer drugs. In March 2020, MorphoSys announced that the FDA had accepted the Biologics License Application for filing and granted priority review, setting a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of August 30, 2020. MOR202 is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against CD38 for the treatment of anti-PLA2R-positive membranous nephropathy, an autoimmune disease affecting the kidneys. In 2017, MorphoSys entered into a regional licensing agreement with to develop and commercialize MOR202 in Greater China. MOR202/TJ202 is currently under investigation by I-Mab in three clinical trials. Otilimab is a fully human monoclonal antibody directed against GM-CSF. The program is outlicensed to GlaxoSmithKline. Otilimab is currently under investigation in a Phase 3 trial in rheumatoid arthritis that started in July 2019.
Technology
MorphoSys has developed a number of antibody technologies that it uses for its proprietary programs as well as partnered programs. MorphoSys’ main technology is HuCAL, which is a collection of more than ten billion fully human antibodies in the form of a phage display bank and a system for their optimization.
