Date: 2014-10-15
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: lantipeptides - LanthioPep™
Company: Morphosys (Germany) Lanthio Pharma (The Netherlands)
Therapeutic area: Technology - Services
Type agreement: R&D licensing
collaboration
Action mechanism: Lantipeptides comprise a novel class of therapeutics with high target selectivity and improved drug-like properties. Lanthio Pharma\'s technology LanthioPep can be used to identify peptides which are selective for a specific disease target and to stabilize them in their optimal structural conformation for receptor binding. Lanthio Pharma applies its proprietary LanthioPep technology to discover peptide therapeutics with increased resistance to peptidase degradation, high receptor specificity and increased intrinsic activity. The high specificity can open up new therapeutic applications around novel targets including intracellular targets and GPCRs. Therapeutic plasma levels of lantipeptides can potentially be achieved via oral, pulmonary or subcutaneous delivery. The technology includes a proprietary bacterial display capability, which allows for the construction of focused or diversified libraries of lanthionine-peptides. These libraries allow for immediate functional screening and easy production of peptides of interest for further in vivo and in vitro testing.
Disease:
Details: * On November 27, 2012, MorphoSys and Lanthio Pharma, a Dutch biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing lantipeptides, have signed a Technology Alliance deal to jointly develop LanthioPep™, Lanthio Pharma’s drug discovery platform technology. MorphoSys and Lanthio Pharma will jointly apply their respective technologies to establish high quality and diverse lantipeptide-based libraries. MorphoSys receives preferred rights to exclusively license the LanthioPep technology for drug discovery. MorphoSys will also make an equity investment in Lanthio Pharma as part of the company's Series A financing round. After closure of the transaction, MorphoSys will have a minority stake in Lanthio Pharma.
Financial terms:
Latest news: * On October 15, 2014, MorphoSys and Lanthio Pharma announced the acquisition of Lanthio Pharma's lanthipeptide technology, which will be used for drug discovery by MorphoSys. The acquisition was triggered by MorphoSys exercising an option within an ongoing collaboration and option agreement between the two companies. By exercising the option, MorphoSys takes over the lanthipeptide technology and all related intellectual property. Lanthio Pharma will continue to focus on building its portfolio of selected lanthipeptide drugs and will participate financially in MorphoSys's exploitation of the technology. Financial details were not disclosed.
