MorphoSys AG and the University of Melbourne announced that the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has confirmed that it will issue US Patent No 7,455,836, covering key uses of antibodies against GM-CSF. The patent stems from a provisional patent application filed in the USPTO in 2000 by the University of Melbourne. In 2007, MorphoSys signed an agreement with the University of Melbourne, providing MorphoSys with an exclusive license to this patent family. The claims of the patent are directed to methods of ameliorating the effects of inflammation by administering to a patient an antibody directed against GM-CSF.

Human cytokine GM-CSF (Granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor) is the target molecule of MorphoSys's proprietary MOR103 antibody program for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MOR103 is the first fully human antibody against GM-CSF in clinical trials. The drug could offer an innovative treatment option for RA based on a mechanism of action distinct from anti-TNF and other competing approaches. In 2004, the market for biopharmaceuticals to treat RA amounted to US$ six billion worldwide and is expected to further increase to US$ 14 billion in 2009.

"This new patent provides us with broad protection for our proprietary antibody program MOR103 in the United States, which is by far the largest market for RA drugs," commented Dr Simon Moroney, chief executive officer of MorphoSys AG. "Our patent portfolio around this promising antibody-based programme now extends beyond the specific MOR103 lead antibody, itself, and we anticipate that MOR103 will find application in other inflammatory disorders as well."

The HuCAL-based antibody MOR103 targets GM-CSF as a means to treat inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and especially RA.
MorphoSys is a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on the generation of fully human antibodies as a means to discover and develop innovative antibody-based drugs against life-threatening diseases.

Melbourne Ventures Pty Ltd is the technology commercialisation company of The University of Melbourne, one of the top 30 Universities in the world (Times Higher Education Supplement 2007).