MorphoSys raises expectations in Germany

A six-year collaboration worth up to $50 million signed between MorphoSys GmbH and Pharmacia & Upjohn may be the largest pharmaceutical deal signed by a German biotech company, and could provide a springboard for an IPO for the Munich company.

The companies will collaborate to discover lead compounds and identify new therapeutic targets for disease areas of interest to the pharma company. MorphoSys' technology aims to accelerate the discovery and optimization of therapeutically active peptides and proteins using combinatorial biology to access novel biomolecules from libraries of compounds...