Morphotek Announces Collaborative Research Agreement With Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories

Morphotek Inc. announced today that it has signed a collaborative research agreement with Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corporation (NYSE:AHP). Under the terms of the agreement, Morphotek will apply its patented Direct-Line® technology for the development of cell lines for Wyeth's internal research and development programs in Oncology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Morphotek is extremely pleased to have Wyeth-Ayerst as a collaborative partner for our Direct-Line® technology for drug discovery research," says Nicholas C. Nicolaides, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Morphotek. "This agreement brings additional support to the utility of our platform to generate proprietary reagents for research and development of pharmaceutical products."

Direct-Line® technology employs Morphotek's proprietary platform technology to evolve individual cells or whole organisms to develop project-specific hosts for product development, gene discovery or drug target discovery. The technology has been successfully applied to a wide array of species to evolve novel, highly defined organisms for product development.

"The oncology products in clinical and pre-clinical development at Wyeth-Ayerst are impressive," says Dr. Philip M. Sass, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "Application of our Direct-Line® technology to Wyeth's cell lines will permit us to generate highly specific reagents that will be useful for uncovering novel signal transduction pathways and ultimately adding to the repertoire of Wyeth's oncology drug targets."

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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