MARTINSRIED, GERMANY and MUNICH, GERMANY -- (Marketwire) -- 02/08/13 -- MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) today announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted the first patent covering the Company's latest antibody platform Ylanthia, which became commercially available for existing and new partners in 2012.

"A growing patent portfolio on our new antibody platform Ylanthia is an important factor for a successful partnering process in our core licensing markets, which we intend to intensify during the course of 2013", commented Dr. Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG.

The new patent (US 8,367,586) covers the composition of MorphoSys's Ylanthia antibody library. Ylanthia comprises more than 100 billion distinct, fully human antibodies, which makes it the industry's largest known antibody Fab library. It uses 36 fixed, naturally-occurring heavy and light chain framework combinations, which translates into unprecedented structural diversity. The library's diversity is expected to result in antibodies against previously inaccessible target molecules and unique epitope coverage.

Ylanthia's antibody frameworks were pre-selected for expression levels, stability and aggregation behavior. A shift towards higher stability and stress tolerance will increase shelf life and serum stability of resulting antibody products, making them more cost-effective to produce and administer. A higher solubility in turn opens up the path for more convenient ways of administration, to the benefit of patients. When needed, antibodies from the Ylanthia library are optimized using MorphoSys's proprietary Slonomics technology. Slonomics enables optimization of Ylanthia antibodies with unprecedented speed and flexibility.

About MorphoSys:

MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most successful antibody library technology in the pharmaceutical industry. By successfully applying this and other patented technologies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human healthcare. Together with its pharmaceutical partners, MorphoSys has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 70 human antibody drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new antibody technology and drug development, MorphoSys is focused on making the healthcare products of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com.

HuCAL®, HuCAL GOLD®, HuCAL PLATINUM®, CysDisplay®, RapMAT®, arYla®, Ylanthia® and 100 billion high potentials® are registered trademarks of MorphoSys AG.

Slonomics(®) is a registered trademark of Sloning BioTechnology GmbH, a subsidiary of MorphoSys AG.

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.

Media Release (PDF):

http://hugin.info/130295/R/1676426/546392.pdf

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Source: MorphoSys AG via Thomson Reuters ONE

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