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Morphotek, Inc. announced today that it has broadened its manufacturing supply agreement with Baxter Healthcare Corporation to support the development and manufacture of its therapeutic antibody pipeline. The extended agreement will reserve capacity for manufacturing of Morphotek's lead compound MORAb-003, which is in Phase I clinical trials for ovarian cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering. This is in addition to current manufacturing for MORAb-009, which is being developed for pancreatic cancer and MORAb-004, which targets a proprietary antigen whose expression is restricted to the cell surface of embryonic endothelia cells of vessels associated with neovascular disease.
Through the use of its proprietary MORPHODOMA® technology, Morphotek develops optimized antibodies and high-titer attendant cell lines for therapeutic applications. The company has assembled a portfolio of lead human and humanized antibodies to disease associated antigens associated with cancer, neovascular, inflammatory and infectious disease. The antibodies within the company's pipeline are targeted against antigens licensed from its collaborative network of research institutes. Morphotek's MORPHODOMA® process allows for the rapid development of second-generation manufacturing strains capable of producing commercial quantities of antibody with enhanced affinity and/or increased specificity to target antigens.
"Morphotek is extremely pleased to extend our clinical supply agreement with Baxter," said Nicholas Nicolaides, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Morphotek. "This agreement secures manufacturing needs for our lead antibody MORAb-003 as it moves through Phase I clinical trials into broader Phase II trials, in addition to securing product supply of our other antibodies as they near entry into the clinic."
"Baxter has demonstrated its ability to develop high-quality material and documentation with our MORAb-003 program which was conducted on time and found adequate upon review by the FDA which accepted our IND application within the minimal time," added Dr. Phillip Sass, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Morphotek. "We are confident that Baxter will meet both our production and quality goals and timelines for our other antibody programs."
About Morphotek, Inc.
Morphotek, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the development of optimized therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. To date, Morphotek has signed eight license agreements to employ its proprietary morphogenics technology to enhance the biological characteristics of antibody and protein therapeutics. The Company recently launched an antibody development platform called Human MORPHODOMA® that employs morphogenics to yield optimized, fully human monoclonal antibodies from high-titer human hybridoma cells using an in vitro immunization system. The method is rapid, the hybridomas are scaleable, and the platform significantly reduces the royalty burdens associated with recombinant approaches. For further information, visit http://www.morphotek.com.
For further information please contact: Philip Sass, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, 610-423-6106; http://www.morphotek.com.