MorphoSys AG announced the successful installation of MorphoSys' fully automated antibody generation system, AutoCAL, at Centocor's research facility in Pennsylvania, USA. AutoCAL is a robotic system developed by MorphoSys for the high throughput screening of MorphoSys´ HuCAL antibody libraries. For the successful completion of the AutoCAL test run at Centocor, MorphoSys received a milestone payment. Financial details were not disclosed.

MorphoSys and Centocor, a member of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, signed an expansion of the two companies existing antibody agreement in March 2002. Under the expanded agreement, Centocor increased its funded research at MorphoSys and also ordered AutoCAL, the MorphoSys-developed system for automated screening of antibodies, for use in Centocor's research programs. Today's milestone represents the successful completion of the AutoCAL project under the revised agreement, and marks the 2nd milestone reached in the Centocor collaboration to-date.

"We are very pleased by the continuing progress of our partnership with Centocor," said Dr. Thomas von Rüden, Chief Scientific Officer, MorphoSys AG. “Our comprehensive program of antibody technologies, which includes HuCAL GOLD, HuCAL EST and AutoCAL, provides MorphoSys and its collaborators with state-of-the-art tools for creating antibodies for the use in research and as therapeutics.”