In June, stalwart German biotech MorphoSys cemented its future as a commercial-stage company through the $1.7 billion acquisition of US epigenetics company Constellation Pharmaceuticals and an agreement with Royalty Pharma to finance the takeover. The deal with its US rival sees the 29-year-old German company gain two advanced epigenetic product candidates: the BET inhibitor pelabresib, in phase 3 testing to treat myelofibrosis; and CPI-0209, an EZH2 inhibitor, which is in a phase 2 trial to treat hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. MorphoSys’s HuCal (Human Combinatorial Antibody Library) technology platform led to the discovery of Tremfya (guselkumab), an anti–IL-23 monoclonal antibody developed by Johnson & Johnson’s Belgian subsidiary Janssen that was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 to treat psoriasis. In July 2020, MorphoSys, in partnership with Incyte, gained its first market go-ahead with FDA approval of Monjuvi (tafasitimab-cxix), in combination with lenalidomide, to treat adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Monjuvi is a humanized cytolytic CD19-targeting IgG1/2 hybrid monoclonal antibody with an engineered Fc domain, which was licensed from Xencor. The modified Fc mediates B cell lysis through apoptosis and immune effector mechanisms through antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis.
MorphoSys, which is headquartered in Planegg, near Munich, has more than 100 products in its wider pipeline, many of them partnered, and those in its proprietary pipeline focus on cancer and autoimmune diseases. The Royalty Pharma deal gives MorphoSys $1.4 billion up front to fund its growth, in exchange for royalties on three MorphoSys programs partnered with pharma: Tremfya, otilimab and the Alzheimer’s disease candidate gantenerumab. The controversial green light for Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab was seen to set an advantageous precedent for others pursuing programs in neurodegenerative diseases, resulting in a boost to share value for MorphoSys from $0.81 to $21.64.
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