Patent Application Filed for MOR103 Program

MorphoSys AG of Martinsried, Germany, and Melbourne Ventures Pty. Ltd., a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the University of Melbourne in Australia, have formed a joint venture in the investigation of the therapeutic applications of MorphoSys’ MOR103 program, a HuCAL (Human Combinatorial Antibody Library) antibody against human GM-CSF (granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor) being developed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. MorphoSys also has been issued patent No. 4,312,403 from the Japanese Patent Office for its CysDisplay, a component of the HuCAL platform. The patent, titled “Novel Methods for Displaying (Poly) Peptides/Proteins on Bacteriophage Particles,” describes a technology-based phage display screening system for selecting high-affinity antibodies.