EXTON, Pa., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Morphotek(R), Inc. announced today that it divested its cell line evolution service business to Invitrogen Corporation (“Invitrogen”). As part of the transaction, Morphotek retains rights to its Human MORPHODOMA(R) antibody technology platform as well as rights to use its basic evolution platform technologies to advance its internal product pipeline. Financial terms will not be disclosed.
Over the past four years, Morphotek matured and validated its cell line optimization platform business through multiple corporate partnerships. This divestment allows Morphotek to focus its business strategy on advancing its therapeutic antibody pipeline and developing next generation antibody products for its internal programs and strategic partners. This will be achieved in part by employing its Human MORPHODOMA(R) technology to generate high-quality, high-affinity, fully human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from immunized human B-cells in a process that bypasses third-party enabling technologies and their associated financial obligations.
“The divestment of our cell line optimization service business reflects Morphotek’s commitment to becoming a leader in the antibody discovery and product areas,” said Nicholas C. Nicolaides, PhD, President and CEO of Morphotek. “We are now in a prime position to focus our efforts on the clinical development and commercialization of our human therapeutic antibody pipeline with our lead MORAb-003 advancing into Phase II clinical trials in ovarian cancer and the initiation of Phase I trials of MORAb-009 in pancreatic cancer and MORAb-004 in neovascular diseases in 2006. Funding from this transaction will help support these trials as well as the development of other therapeutic candidates in our pipeline.”
As a result of this transaction, Invitrogen is now the exclusive provider of the cell line evolution technology, branded Revolution(TM), to the biotechnology and agricultural industries. “Revolution(TM) is exciting because it introduces an entirely new mechanism for cell line optimization,” according to David Onions, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at Invitrogen. “Not only is the Revolution(TM) technology a powerful tool for improving product expression, but now we are able to achieve optimization of traits previously considered out of reach.” The Revolution(TM) technology is offered through Invitrogen’s PD-Direct(TM) process development services to clients interested in cell line optimization within an integrated process development program or as a focused technology solution.
Morphotek, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the generation of proprietary proteins for product discovery and development. The Company has a validated and patented platform technology called morphogenics that rapidly enhances the natural process of genetic evolution within a targeted host to yield variants with novel, commercially important output traits. Morphotek markets an antibody development platform called Human MORPHODOMA(R) that employs morphogenics to yield fully human, high-affinity MAbs from high-titer hybridoma cells. The platform is also employed as a discovery tool to generate libraries of hybridomas yielding fully human MAbs for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in humans. Both platforms bypass the burdensome royalty stacking issues associated with recombinant antibody technologies. Internally, Morphotek employs its technologies to develop optimized therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. For further information visit http://www.morphotek.com.
Contact: Kimberly Ilgenfritz Executive Director, Business Development & Marketing Tel: 610-423-6147 or e-mail: info@morphotek.com
Morphotek, Inc.
CONTACT: Kimberly Ilgenfritz, Executive Director, Business Development &Marketing of Morphotek, Inc., +1-610-423-6147, or info@morphotek.com
Web site: http://www.morphotek.com//
