MorphoSys AG has received a milestone payment from Novartis in connection with the initiation of a phase 1 clinical trial of a HuCAL antibody in the field of oncology. This becomes the tenth therapeutic antibody made using MorphoSys's technologies that Novartis is evaluating in clinical trials. The associated milestone payment is booked in 2014.

"In 2014 our pipeline, and our collaborators' pipelines of therapeutic antibodies have matured significantly and now include more programmes in clinical trials and in a more advanced state than ever before. Today's news represents the fourth clinical milestone with our partners during the course of the year," commented Dr. Marlies Sproll, chief scientific officer of MorphoSys AG.

MorphoSys's collaboration with Novartis has resulted in ten clinical programmes to date, five of which are in phase 1 development, with another four programmes in phase 2 and one in phase 3. In total, MorphoSys's partnered and proprietary clinical pipeline currently comprises 22 unique antibody molecules which are being evaluated in more than 60 clinical trials.