Novartis will pay $600 million upfront to gain practically exclusive access to company’s human antibody libraries and extended 10-year use of HuCAL.

MorphoSys stands to earn over $1 billion in an expansion of its alliance with Novartis. The partnership is focused on discovery and development of mAb-based biopharmaceuticals using MorphoSys’ HuCAL technology. It was initiated in 2004 and has been extended for another 10 years.


Novartis will pay approximately $600 million, which will include FTE support, technology transfer, and annual licensing fees. This excludes reimbursement of R&D costs related to early-stage development activities. The upfront payment plus potential clinical development and market approval milestones could exceed $1 billion. MorphoSys is also entitled to royalty payments and/or profit sharing.


Other than rights held by MorphoSys’ current collaborations and access for MorphoSys’ own internal use, Novartis will have virtually exclusive access to the company’s human antibody libraries and any future improvements made during the partnership. MorphoSys will also fully transfer a copy of its antibody libraries and technologies to Novartis research sites. 


Novartis may extend the agreement by two years or may conclude the alliance after seven years in certain limited circumstances. MorphSys will obtain codevelopment rights for chosen programs as well as marketing licenses for the resulting products in specific areas.

Previous articleBruker BioSciences Shells Out $914M for Bruker BioSpin Group
Next articleCompendia Bioscience Signs Oncomine Licensing Agreement with AstraZeneca