EXTON, Pa., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Morphotek(R) Inc. announced today that it has signed an exclusive, worldwide patent license agreement giving it the right to develop and commercialize an antibody for the diagnosis and treatment of mesothelin-expressing cancers. The license was granted by the Public Health Service (PHS) and the NCI. This agreement is a result of an ongoing research collaboration where Morphotek is applying its proprietary antibody technologies to develop and optimize antibodies to cancer-associated proteins identified by researchers at the NCI. One of these antibodies “MORAb-009" is being developed by Morphotek for the treatment of pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancers and mesothelioma.
“This agreement accelerates the evolution of Morphotek’s business model from a service-based enterprise to a biopharmaceutical development company. MORAb-009 is one of six therapeutic antibodies we are currently developing. We expect to file the Investigational New Drug Application for this product in early 2006 which will contribute to our corporate goal of leveraging our antibody technologies to file two INDs per year,” said Dr. Nicholas C. Nicolaides, President and Chief Executive Officer of Morphotek.
“The treatment of pancreatic cancer and other mesothelin-expressing malignancies is an unmet medical need,” said Dr. Martin Phillips, Senior Vice President of Clinical Development. “We believe the mechanism of action and the target makes MORAb-009 an outstanding addition to our pipeline of antibodies for cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases. We look forward to commencing clinical studies early in 2006.”
The first therapeutic indication for investigation will be for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer. According to preliminary numbers presented by the American Cancer Society, 32,180 Americans were diagnosed with and 31,800 died of pancreatic cancer in 2005, making this the fourth-leading cause of cancer death overall. A significant opportunity exists for compounds that can help prolong the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer as well as compounds that offer additional clinical benefits such as a lack of side effects and those that can improve quality of life. Ovarian and lung cancers and mesothelioma will be also evaluated for safety and therapeutic efficacy during the MORAb-009 development program.
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 monoclonal antibodies (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 its optimized therapeutic antibody pipeline 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 610-423-6147 info@morphotek.com
Morphotek Inc.
CONTACT: Kimberly Ilgenfritz, Executive Director, Business Development &Marketing, Morphotek, +1-610-423-6147, or info@morphotek.com
Web site: http://www.morphotek.com//
