At our first, but for sure not last meetup in Munich last Monday, Philip had the pleasure to have a chat with Simon Moroney, CEO and co-founder of the biggest biotech in Germany, Morphosys. Their topics ranged from Morphosys’ current pipeline and previous failures to the immuno-oncology hype and company culture.
Morphosys started out with its proprietary antibody technology platform in 1992 and has since then developed more than 100 antibodies together with partners such as Novartis. Although none of these have so far reached the market, with an impressive number of 27 antibodies in clinical development, Simon told us, “It has been a fantastically productive platform. The first product should come to the market end of this year and we expect that to be the beginning of a flow of products, which will reach the market over the coming years.”
Counting more than 300 employees and with a market cap of roughly €1.5B, the company is now one of the top players in the antibody space. Apart from discussing Morphosys’ current strategy, which has by now shifted towards the development and commercialization of its own antibodies, Simon also shared his views on the immuno-oncology hype, “[Immunooncology] has opened up a whole new approach to treating cancer. (…) There is a huge amount of work going on and it’s gonna be a bonanza for the next, at least, 10 years.”
Morphosys itself is of course also getting into the game. Simon told us about a new collaboration with Merck, focusing on some unexplored checkpoint inhibitors. “We’re very excited what we’re seeing there,” he commented.
Within the nice and familiar atmosphere of our Meetup, we got to cover a wide range of topics. Apart from learning how Morphosys managed to grow into a clinical-stage biotech, Simon also gave us some insights into Morphosys’ company culture, “I’m a great believer that if you have a great environment, where people want to come and want to work, then the company will be successful.”
Make sure to check out the video to hear the whole story!