Morphotek Receives Army Grant to Support Development of High Titer Production Strains for the Generation of Therapeutic Polypeptides

Morphotek Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the United States Army. The grant was awarded to support Morphotek's program to generate recombinant high-titer strains for the production of therapeutic molecules. The scope of the program is the generation of high-titer recombinant human thrombin and fibrinogen producer strains for use in manufacturing.

Morphotek has developed a proprietary platform process, called Direct-Line® technology, that can generate high-titer production cell lines to meet the annual manufacturing yield requirements for therapeutic polypeptides. The Phase I award is aimed at the generation of high-titer mammalian cell lines for the recombinant production of these proteins.

"We believe our Direct-Line® technology offers great promise for the generation of high-titer production strains to meet the annual yield requirements for the manufacturing of any therapeutic protein. The process has successfully enhanced titer yields of proteins in a number of systems commonly used for recombinant production of therapeutic proteins, including antibody production from hybridomas and mammalian cell lines," said Nicholas C. Nicolaides, Ph.D., Morphotek's President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer.

Philip M. Sass, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer added, "We are pleased to have received the support from the US Army to help develop high-production manufacturing cell lines for clinically important therapeutics. The review process to obtain this award is highly stringent and selective and is an endorsement of our in vivo platform technology by the military."

Morphotek (www.morphotek.com) is a biotechnology company focused on the generation of proprietary organisms for product development using a patented platform technology that can enhance the natural process of genetic evolution within a targeted host. The technology has been successfully applied to microbes, plants, and mammals to yield genetically diverse offspring that are suitable for pharmaceutical and agricultural product development in the areas of antibody therapeutics, protein therapeutics, product manufacturing, drug target discovery, and improved output traits for commercial applications. The company is currently focusing its platform on the development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious disease.

For Information Contact:
Dr. Nicholas C. Nicolaides, President, CEO and CSO
Morphotek Inc.
610-423-6102

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