Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

MorphoSys’ Antibodies by Design and JPT Peptide Technologies announce cooperation agreement

Berlin and Martinsried/Munich, April 18, 2005 - Antibodies by Design, a division of MorphoSys AG and JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jerini AG, today announced the start of a co-marketing agreement between the two specialist companies. Within the scope of this agreement the parties agree to co-market the rapid generation of monoclonal antibodies by An-tibodies by Design and the complementary peptide-based services and products from JPT. Each partner will offer the services of the other to its customers throughout the world-wide market, with exception of Japan.

“We are very glad to have reached an agreement with JPT which bears enormous advantages for both companies, and also for our customers”, stated Dieter Lingelbach, Head of the Antibodies by Design division and Senior Vice President of MorphoSys AG. “Both companies are absolute spe-cialists in their field and belong to the top addresses for antibody development and innovative pep-tide-based services in Europe.”

„MorphoSys’ unique antibody repertoire is the ideal complement to our immunology tools program which includes the peptide array platforms PepSpotTM and PepStarTM plus the novel PepMixTM technology for effective T-lymphocyte stimulation. This co-marketing agreement will allow both companies to address new customers and offer them an even wider package of immunology ser-vices”, said Holger Wenschuh, Managing Director of JPT

About JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH:
JPT Peptide Technologies is a DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 certified biotechnology com-pany based in Berlin and a leading supplier of innovative peptide-based services and products.
JPT is in possession of several proprietary technologies such as the high-throughput peptide syn-thesis and screening platform PepSpotTM, the peptide microarray technology PepStarTM, and
PepMixTM, a unique approach for antigen specific T-cell stimulation by antigen spanning peptide pools. JPT has a world-wide customer base throughout the pharmaceutical and biotechnology in-dustries. JPT is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jerini AG.

About MorphoSys’ Antibodies by Design:
MorphoSys develops and applies innovative technologies for the production of synthetic antibodies, which accelerate drug discovery and target characterization. Founded in 1992, the Company’s pro-prietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL®) technology is used by researchers worldwide for human antibody generation. The Company currently has licensing and research col-laborations with Bayer (Berkeley, California/USA), Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb (Wilmington, Delaware/USA), Centocor Inc. (Malvern, Pennsylvania/USA), GPC Biotech AG (Munich/Germany), Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel/Switzerland), ImmunoGen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Novartis AG (Basel, Switzerland), Novoplant GmbH (Gater-sleben/Germany), Oridis Biomed GmbH (Graz/Austria), Pfizer Inc. (Delaware/USA), ProChon Bio-tech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel), Schering AG (Berlin/Germany) and Xoma Ltd. (Berkeley, Califor-nia/USA). For further information, please visit the corporate website at: http://www.morphosys.com/; information on the Antibodies by Design Division of MorphoSys is available at www.A-by-D.com.

Statements included in this press release which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the safe harbour provided by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litiga-tion Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including “antici-pates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “expects” and similar expressions. The company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the company’s future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Fac-tors that may affect future operations and business prospects include, but are not limited to, clinical and scientific results and developments concerning corporate collaborations and the company’s proprietary rights and other factors described in the prospectus relating to the company’s recent public offering.

For further informations please contact:

<<Back