Morphic Announces Presentation of New Data Supporting Development of MORF-057 at UEG Week Virtual 2020

-Data validate physiologically relevant assay used in MORF-057 Phase 1 studies to measure receptor occupancy of α₄β₇ integrin-
-MORF-057, inhibitor of α₄β₇ integrin, in development to treat inflammatory bowel disease-

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: MORF), a biopharmaceutical company developing a new generation of oral integrin therapies for the treatment of serious chronic diseases, today announced a poster presentation with new preclinical data on MORF-057 at the UEG Week Virtual 2020 meeting. These new data support the profile of MORF-057 as a potent, selective, and orally available small molecule inhibitor of the integrin α₄β₇ and establish assays for key clinically relevant biomarkers in the ongoing Phase 1 trial of MORF-057. MORF-057 is in clinical development as an oral small molecule inhibitor of the α₄β₇ integrin for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with an initial focus on ulcerative colitis (UC).

“The data presented at UEG Week 2020 expand on the results from previous studies demonstrating the high selectivity of MORF-057 for its integrin target, α₄β₇, through ex vivo human translational biomarkers,” stated Bruce Rogers, PhD, chief scientific officer of Morphic. “Importantly, with these data, Morphic has validated a physiologically relevant assay to measure α₄β₇ receptor occupancy in human whole blood, an important pharmacodynamic marker being studied in the ongoing phase 1 trial of MORF-057. We are now focused on the translation of these promising preclinical data into clinical results from the Phase 1 study of MORF-057.”

Details of the Poster Presentation at UEG

Title: Translational biomarkers for selective, oral, small molecule α₄β₇ inhibitor MORF-057

Presenter: Maloy Mangada, PhD, Associate Director Translational Sciences, Morphic Therapeutic Inc.

Contributors: Maloy Mangada, Naresh S. Redhu, Terence Moy, Ali Hussain, Vinod Yadav, Fu-Yang Lin, Brianna Bannister, Raegan Bonesteel, Sarah St. Gelais, Dan Cui, Andrew Sullivan, Liangsu Wang, Alex Lugovskoy, Kwangsoo Kim, Jessica Pondish, Peter Traber, Peter Linde, Dawn Troast, Cheng Zhong, Kristopher N. Hahn, Matthew G. Bursavich, Jamie Wong, Blaise Lippa, Bruce N. Rogers and Adrian S. Ray