CED News

Greensboro-based Novartis (www.novartis.com), a pharmaceutical company, has entered into a $1 billion drug development agreement with MorphoSys, a German biotechnology company, for the discovery and development of antibody-based biologic therapies, the most successful and fastest growing class of biologics. The 10-year agreement calls for the two companies to jointly discover and optimize antibodies against a significant number of molecular targets in a wide range of diseases. Under the agreement, Novartis has committed to making total payments, including FTE support, technology transfer, and annual licensing fees of approximately $600 million to MorphoSys; payments could exceed $1 billion when including milestones that are contingent upon successful clinical development and market approval of multiple products. MorphoSys may also participate in co-development and assume co-detailing responsibility for selected projects.