Morphic Expands Research and Development Collaboration with Janssen Through Third Integrin Program

Morphic Therapeutic a biopharmaceutical company developing a new generation of oral integrin therapies for the treatment of serious chronic diseases, announced the expansion of its research and development collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Janssen), one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The collaboration expansion involves the initiation of work on a third integrin target, with the collaboration scope to include activating antibodies against this new target. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

“Morphic’s unique understanding of the integrin receptor enables a wide variety of therapeutic development opportunities, and we are excited to expand our outstanding collaboration with Janssen to investigate new applications of our technology to discover novel antibodies of integrins,” said Bruce Rogers, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, Morphic Therapeutic. “Morphic’s goal is to create new integrin-targeted therapies for patients with serious diseases and we are grateful for Janssen’s expertise in this mission.”

Under the terms of the original collaboration agreement, Morphic will receive a milestone payment for initiating work on the third target. As part of the expansion any new product candidates will be subject to milestones and royalties.