MorphoSys to Present Proprietary Hemato-Oncological Antibody Programs at ASH 2016

MorphoSys, the creator of HuCAL (Human Combinatorial Antibody Library), will give two oral and one poster presentation on the company’s proprietary antibody hemato-oncological programs, MOR208 and MOR202, at the upcoming 58^th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting (ASH 2016) Dec. 3-6 in San Diego, Calif..

“We are pleased that updated clinical trial results with our antibodies MOR208 and MOR202 in patients with B-cell malignancies and multiple myeloma, respectively, will be shown at the upcoming ASH conference as oral presentations,” Arndt Schottelius, MorphoSys’ chief development officer, said in a press release. “We expect this will further demonstrate the potential of our proprietary development candidates for patients suffering from those hemato-oncological malignancies that have a particularly high unmet medical need,” he said.

MOR208 is a monoclonal antibody that targets the CD19 protein, broadly expressed on the surface of B-cells. MorphoSys is investigating MOR208 as an immunotherapeutic option in B-cell malignancies, which include non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), indolent (slow-growing) NHL, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

MOR202 is a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting CD38, one of the most strongly and uniformly expressed antigens on the surface of malignant plasma cells, and an established diagnostic marker for multiple myeloma. Because of its expression pattern, anti-CD38 antibodies might be clinically useful as a new therapeutic approach to treat multiple myeloma. MOR202, in particular, works by binding to CD38-positive cells and inducing a strong immune response against those cells.

MorphoSys will present:

• Title: “Single-Agent MOR208 in Relapsed or Refractory (R-R) Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL): Results from Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and Indolent NHL Subgroups of a Phase IIa Study” (abstract #623); and
• Title: “A Phase I/IIa Study of the CD38 Antibody MOR202 Alone and in Combination with Pomalidomide or Lenalidomide in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma” (abstract #1152).

The first presentation will include updated clinical results from a Phase 2a MOR208 trial (NCT02763319) in adults with relapsed/refractory NHL – including DLBCL and iNHL – where MOR208 was evaluated as mono therapy. This trial is recruiting applicants.

The second oral presentation includes updates on safety and effectiveness results from the ongoing Phase 1/2 dose-escalation study (NCT01421186) of MOR202 in combination with Revlimid (lenalidomide) and Pomalyst (pomalidomide), in multiple myeloma patients who had been treated previously. MorphoSys will focus particularly on maturing data from the lowest (8 mg/kg) and highest (16 mg/kg) dose cohorts. This trial also is recruiting applicants.

In addition, MorphoSys will present one poster communication, titled “Updated Results from a Phase II Study of the Fc Engineered CD19 Antibody MOR208 in Combination with Lenalidomide for Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Richter’s Transformation or Ibrutinib for Patients with Ibrutinib-Resistant Clones” (abstract #4386).

This poster presentation will include safety and effectiveness results from the ongoing Phase 2 investigator-initiated trial (IIT) of MOR208 (NCT02005289), in combination with lenalidomide or Imbruvica (ibrutinib) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

All abstracts will be published online Dec. 1 in the supplemental issue of Blood.