Promising initial in vitro and in vivo data for the internal cancer antibody programme, MOR202, were presented at the "Human Antibodies & Hybridomas" conference held in Dublin, MorphoSys AG announced here.

The fully-human antibodies generated from MorphoSys´ HuCAL Gold library, are directed against the target molecule CD38, which is heavily over-expressed on the surface of certain cancer cells. The MOR202 programme is currently in pre-clinical development for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other blood-cancer related diseases. In line with its corporate strategy, MorphoSys plans to out-license the MOR202 antibody programme before start of clinical development, according to the company release.

The MOR202 antibodies were initially characterized in detail in various in vitro assays. By directing the MorphoSys antibodies against primary patient tumour material and specific hematologic cancer cell lines, the assays demonstrated that the antibodies were able to kill cancer cells efficiently.

A MOR202 antibody also proved to be highly effective in an in vivo animal model. The HuCAL IgG antibody was administered regularly to tumour-bearing mice over a period of between three and five weeks. In various experimental settings, different antibody constructs, dosages and treatment regimens were examined. In all cases, treatment with MOR202 antibody led to a significant slowdown of tumour growth, in some cases no tumour could be detected at the end of the observation period. MorphoSys has submitted several US patent applications. These relate to specific anti-CD38 antibodies and their use.

"These initial pre-clinical results from our new MOR202 cancer programme are very promising", said Dr. Simon Moroney, chief executive officer of MorphoSys AG. "With the target molecule CD38, we believe that we have chosen an interesting starting point for long-term improvement of the treatment of various hematologic cancer types," he concluded.

Multiple myeloma, also called plasmocytoma, is a form of hematologic cancer that causes an increased overproduction of malignant plasma cells, particularly in the bone marrow. In healthy individuals, the immune system acts as an efficient defence mechanism against pathogens and infectious diseases. At present, only 30 per cent of treated patients survive for more than 5 years under present alternative therapies.

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 for human antibody generation.