Morphotek Inc. Receives Beacon Award From CancerCare

EXTON, Pa., April 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Morphotek®, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., announced today that it was recently awarded the Beacon Award from CancerCare, a national support services organization for people affected by cancer, for its support of CancerCare‘s educational programs for people facing lung and ovarian cancers. The two organizations have been working together to help patients and their families become aware of options available to help treat and manage these diseases. The award was presented at CancerCare’s 28th Annual “Partnership in Hope” Dinner in New York City.

“We are honored to be recognized by CancerCare for our team’s efforts in working closely with advocacy groups and patients to better understand how to better meet the clinical and emotional needs of patients with cancer,” said Nicholas Nicolaides, President and Chief Executive Officer at Morphotek. “Our efforts reflect the philosophy of our team, instilled by our parent company, Eisai, whose human healthcare (hhc) mission is to pursue drug development that satisfies unmet medical needs in a manner that improves the well-being of patients worldwide. This award endorses our efforts in pursuing this mission.”

“Morphotek’s commitment to innovation cannot be understated,” said CancerCare‘s Chief Executive Officer, Helen H. Miller. “We are grateful to Morphotek for their continued support of CancerCare‘s free educational programs, as it is vital for people affected by cancer to have access to the most up-to-date information about their diagnosis and its treatment options.”

As part of its human healthcare (hhc) mission, the company seeks to proactively learn about the underlying causes of diseases and available approved/experimental therapies. Additionally, the company seeks to learn the patients’ thoughts about their disease and treatments by working with key opinion leaders and patient advocacy groups. This information is shared regularly throughout the company to improve development strategies to identify new therapeutic agents and/or treatment regimens to facilitate patient care.

About Morphotek

Morphotek®, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of protein and antibody products through the use of a novel and proprietary gene evolution technology. The technology has been successfully applied to a broad variety of cell lines and organisms to yield genetically diverse offspring that are suitable for pharmaceutical product development in the areas of antibody therapeutics, protein therapeutics, product manufacturing, drug target discovery, and improved output traits for commercial applications. The company is currently focusing its platform on the development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious disease. For more information, please visit www.morphotek.com.

About Eisai Inc.

Eisai Inc. was established in 1995 and is ranked among the top-20 U.S. pharmaceutical companies (based on retail sales). The company began marketing its first product in the United States in 1997 and has rapidly grown to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical business. Eisai’s areas of commercial focus include neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. The company serves as the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world.

Eisai has a global product creation organization that includes U.S.-based R&D facilities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania as well as manufacturing facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. The company’s areas of R&D focus include neuroscience; oncology; vascular, inflammatory and immunological reaction; and antibody-based programs. For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com.

SOURCE Morphotek, Inc.