MorphoSys, a German biotech with a subsidiary that employs about 20 sales and marketing employees in Raleigh, said Novartis would get the rights to develop drugs from MorphoSys' pipeline. The Swiss pharmaceutical company will pay a guaranteed $600 million in fees and research funding and could pay as much as $1 billion if drugs from the partnership hit the market.
Novartis also would pay royalties to MorphoSys on sales of drugs, it said.
The two companies had reached a prior drug development deal in 2004, though the new deal significantly expands the scope of the agreement, they said.
MorphoSys is developing a pipeline of drugs based on human antibodies. Such drugs carry less risk of side effects than other treatments, but they typically have a large molecular size and must be given via injection or intravenously.
The company's Raleigh office is not involved in drug development. Rather, its employees work for AbD Serotec, a MorphoSys subsidiary that manufactures antibodies for researchers around the world.
Novartis, meanwhile, recently broke ground on a plant in Holly Springs where it plans to manufacture flu vaccines and employ 350 people.
