[Beacon Staff]

MorphoSys & Celgene end deal to jointly develop MOR202

by Beacon Staff on Fri Mar 27, 2015 1:13 am

The German biotech company MorphoSys announced yesterday that it and Celgene have "mutually agreed" to end the collaboration they had in place to develop MOR202 as a potential myeloma therapy. MorphoSys will continue development of the drug as a myeloma therapy, but will do so (for now) on its own.

MOR202 is one of three CD38 monoclonal antibody therapies under development as potential myeloma therapies. It is, however, probably the least known of the three. The other two – dara­tumumab and SAR650984 – are further along in development and better known to most in the myeloma community.

Here is the key text of yesterday's announcement as well as a link to the full press release.

MorphoSys And Celgene Mutually Agree To End MOR202 Collaboration

MorphoSys AG ... announced today that it has regained rights to MOR202 from Celgene Corporation. The companies have mutually agreed to terminate their co-development and co-promotion agreement for MOR202. Clinical development of MOR202, which currently involves a MorphoSys-sponsored phase 1/2a trial in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients, will continue as planned. This trial includes combi­na­tion cohorts with lenalidomide and pomalidomide which will be provided to MorphoSys by Celgene. Financial details were not disclosed.

"Regaining rights to MOR202 opens up new possibilities for MorphoSys", commented Dr. Simon Moroney, CEO of MorphoSys. "MOR202 binds to CD38, a clinically validated target in multiple myeloma, and we know there is a lot of interest in the program. We thank Celgene for working with MorphoSys to advance the clinical development of MOR202. This program is a valuable component of our proprietary portfolio, and we are looking forward to presenting clinical data in the near future."

"We are committed to continuing the development of MOR202 as there is a high unmet medical need for new treatment options in multiple myeloma," added Dr. Arndt Schottelius, Chief Development Officer of MorphoSys AG. "Based on pre-clinical data, we see significant promise in combining MOR202 with Celgene's lenalidomide and pomalidomide in clinical trials which will commence soon."

MorphoSys aims to release first clinical data from the ongoing phase 1/2a trial at a medical conference in 2015. Cohorts in which MOR202 is combined with lenalidomide and with pomalidomide will be added to the trial during the first half of 2015. CD38 is a promising target for the treatment of multiple myeloma and potentially other hematological malignancies. An effective antibody against this target could change future treatment regimens in multiple myeloma and also become the basis for treatments in several other forms of cancer.

Complete press release: "MorphoSys And Celgene Mutually Agree To End MOR202 Collaboration" (March 26)