Morphotek Receives Pennsylvania Opportunity Grant to Support Ongoing Research and Development

Morphotek, Inc., a genomics-based biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has been awarded a follow-on Opportunity Grant by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to support the growth of the company's platform technology and infrastructure.

"This administration has led the charge to make Pennsylvania the best place in the world to build and grow pharmaceutical businesses," said Governor Mark Schweiker. "With partners like Morphotek, together we will continue to invent the future and continue to emerge as a biotechnology leader."

Morphotek was awarded the follow-on Opportunity Grant to help the support company's ongoing R&D programs using it's proprietary gene evolving platform technology called morphogenics for the development of therapeutic antibodies and high-titer producer strains for the manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products. This project is expected to create multiple high wage paying jobs for the Southeastern Region.

"We are pleased with Governor Schweiker and his administration's continued support in helping Morphotek expand its technology platform," said Nicholas C. Nicolaides, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The Commonwealth's support demonstrates Morphotek's ability to successfully execute the major goals of our business plan and to carryout our technology objectives for generating substantial growth over the upcoming years."

Philip M. Sass, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer commented, "These funds will support additional expansion of both our R&D operations in our genetic evolution programs focused on generating proprietary commercial cell hosts as well as several therapeutic biologics that we plan on further developing as clinical candidates for the treatment of cancer and other life threatening indications."

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