MorphoSys AG announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has granted two new patents, which further strengthen the Company's IP portfolio. These patents provide an extended protection of the MorphoSys HuCAL (Human Combinatorial Antibody Library) technology and enlarge the potential area of application for MorphoSys' technologies.
The first new patent (US 6,696,248) entitled "Protein/(Poly)Peptide Libraries" relates to MorphoSys' proprietary HuCAL technology. The patent covers the genetic constitution of synthetic, fully modular human antibody libraries based on in silico consensus sequences. A first HuCAL patent, which is now complemented by the new patent, was issued by the U.S. Patent Office in 2001. Besides those issued in the United States HuCAL patents have been granted in Australia and at the European Patent Office. Furthermore MorphoSys has already received several notifications of allowance for further patent applications in the U.S.
In addition, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office granted a patent (US 6,692,935 B1) entitled "Targeted Hetero-Association of Recombinant Proteins to Multi-Functional Complexes". The patent covers certain methods for the development of multi-functional protein complexes, such as the combination of antibody fragments with different specificities.
"Over the last few years we have built a strong intellectual property portfolio around our proprietary technology HuCAL, which is the basis of our commercial offering", commented Dr. Simon Moroney, chief executive officer at MorphoSys AG.
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 proprietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL technology is used by researchers worldwide for human antibody generation. The Company currently has licensing and research collaborations with Bayer (Berkeley, California/USA), Biogen Idec Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/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), Oridis Biomed GmbH (Graz/Austria), Pfizer Inc. (Delaware/USA), ProChon Biotech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel), Schering AG (Berlin/Germany) and Xoma Ltd. (Berkeley, California/USA).