MorphoSys Receives Additional Patents on Novel Antibody Platform Ylanthia in the US and First Patent in China

MorphoSys AG / MorphoSys Receives Additional Patents on Novel Antibody Platform Ylanthia in the US and First Patent in China . Processed and transmitted by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) today announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of China have granted additional patents covering the Company's latest antibody platform Ylanthia.

"Our new antibody platform Ylanthia is being used in a rising number of therapeutic relationships including our recent alliances with Merck Serono and Temple University. In addition to building a track record on the commercial side, robust patent protection is important for our new technology platform and today's patents further strengthen our position around Ylanthia in our core markets and in the emerging markets," commented Dr. Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG.

The newly granted US patents (US 8,685,896 and US 8,728,981) cover an antibody library with superior biophysical properties and methods of selecting antibodies from such a library. Similar subject matter is covered in the new Chinese patent (ZL 2010 8 0022793.7). The patents have scheduled expiry dates of 2030 and 2031.

MorphoSys's Ylanthia antibody library comprises more than 100 billion distinct, fully human antibodies, which makes it the industry's largest known antibody Fab library. It uses 36 fixed, naturally-occurring heavy and light chain framework combinations, which translates into unprecedented structural diversity. The library's diversity is expected to result in antibodies against previously inaccessible target molecules and in unique epitope coverage.

Ylanthia's antibody frameworks were pre-selected for favorable expression levels, stability and aggregation behavior. A shift towards higher stability and stress tolerance will increase shelf life and serum stability of resulting antibody products, making them more cost-effective to produce and administer. A higher solubility in turn opens up the path for more convenient ways of administration, to the benefit of patients. When needed, antibodies from the Ylanthia library are optimized using MorphoSys's proprietary Slonomics technology. Slonomics enables optimization of Ylanthia antibodies with unprecedented speed and flexibility.