MorphoSys Regains Rights to MOR202 Antibody Against CD38 and
Updates its Financial Guidance for 2015
Conference call on Friday, March 27, 2015, at 1:00pm CET (12:00pm GMT/8:00am EST)

Martinsried / Munich, Germany (Press Release) – MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) 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.

2015 Guidance Update:

As a result of the termination of the co-development and co-promotion agree­ment for MOR202, MorphoSys has updated its financial guidance. The Company now ex­pec­ts revenues for the 2015 financial year in the amount of EUR 101 million to EUR 106 million (up from pre­vi­ously EUR 58 million to EUR 63 million) due to the full realization of deferred revenues from the original agree­ment with Celgene and a one-time payment from Celgene for devel­op­ment costs in 2015. Based on man­agement's current planning, pro­pri­e­tary R&D expenses are ex­pec­ted to in­­crease to a range of EUR 56 million to EUR 63 million (previously EUR 48 million to EUR 58 million), in­­clud­ing the devel­op­ment costs for MOR202 for the remainder of the year. The Company now ex­pec­ts earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of approx­i­mately EUR 9 million to EUR 16 million in 2015 (previously EUR -20 million to EUR -30 million).

MorphoSys will hold a conference call on Friday, March 27, 2015, to discuss this announcement.

Dial-in number for the analyst conference call (in English) at 01:00 pm CET; 12:00 pm GMT; 08:00 am EST (listen-only):

Please dial in 10 minutes before the beginning of the conference

The replay and transcript will be made avail­able at http://www.morphosys.com.

About MorphoSys

MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most suc­cess­ful anti­body library tech­nology in the pharma­ceu­tical industry. By suc­cess­fully applying this and other patented tech­nolo­gies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of thera­peutic anti­bodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human health­care.

Together with its pharma­ceu­tical partners, MorphoSys has built a thera­peutic pipe­line of more than 90 human anti­body drug can­di­dates for the treat­ment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new anti­body tech­nology and drug devel­op­ment, MorphoSys is focused on making the health­care prod­ucts of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com.

HuCAL®, HuCAL GOLD®, HuCAL PLATINUM®, CysDisplay®, RapMAT®, arYla®, Ylanthia® and 100 billion high poten­tials® are registered trademarks of MorphoSys AG.

Slonomics® is a registered trademark of Sloning BioTechnology GmbH, a sub­sid­i­ary of MorphoSys AG.

This communication con­tains certain forward-looking state­ments con­cern­ing the MorphoSys group of com­pa­nies. The forward-looking state­ments con­tained herein rep­re­sent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and un­cer­tain­ties. Should actual con­di­tions differ from the Company's assump­tions, actual results and actions may differ from those antic­i­pated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking state­ments as far as the wording of the relevant press release is con­cerned.

Source: MorphoSys.