Novartis and MorphoSys sign $23m deal

pharmafile | December 8, 2022 | News story | Sales and Marketing  

MorphoSys has announced that it will sell its worldwide licensing rights to its preclinical cancer programme to Novartis in exchange for a $23m upfront payment. The MorphoSys subsidiary, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, agreed the acquisition on Tuesday, allowing Novartis to research, develop and commercialise its oncology treatments.

The programme includes preclinical inhibitors of novel cancer targets, and was added to MorphoSys’ array of research last year after the epigenetics biotech was acquired for $1.7bn.

Novartis will now pay MorphoSys an initial sum of $23m, although MorphoSys will be entitled to further payments and royalties dependent on meeting certain milestones. Novartis will begin heading up all activities for the programme shortly.

German biotech MorphoSys has recently been trying to streamline its pipeline, selling various autoimmune-focused programmes in an attempt to narrow its focus to the oncology sphere. It has also cut back on US operations, focusing more on its base in Planegg, Germany, although much of its drug development work continues to be based in the US.

Jean-Paul Kress, chief executive officer of MorphoSys, commented: “We are pleased that our trusted and long-standing collaborator Novartis will continue to drive this programme forward. Novartis has strong medicinal chemistry, oncology development and translational research capabilities to realise the full potential of this novel cancer target. At MorphoSys, we will continue to focus our resources on driving our late- and mid-stage oncology pipeline forward, which has the potential to enhance the standard and quality of care in difficult-to-treat and debilitating types of blood cancers.”

 

Betsy Goodfellow


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