Dr. Markus Enzelberger Appointed MorphoSys's Chief Scientific Officer

PLANEGG/MUNICH, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / October 30, 2017 / MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC PINK: MPSYY) today announced that Dr. Markus Enzelberger has been appointed as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), as of November 1, 2017. Dr. Enzelberger has been the Company's Interim CSO since April 15, 2017. He will succeed Dr. Marlies Sproll, who has been on temporary leave from her CSO position for family reasons since April 15, 2017. Dr. Sproll resigned, effective end of October 31, 2017 due to ongoing family matters, and will take on a new part-time role at MorphoSys as Special Adviser to the CEO of the Company, Dr. Simon Moroney, as of November 1, 2017.

Dr. Enzelberger joined MorphoSys in 2002 and served in various leadership positions within the Company's R&D organization. Since 2012 he acted as Senior Vice President, Discovery, Alliances and Technologies, taking responsibility for the drug discovery activities for both MorphoSys's proprietary and partnered programs as well as for technology development. Dr. Enzelberger is co-inventor of MorphoSys's proprietary antibody libraries Ylanthia and HuCAL Platinum. He led R&D teams working on multiple discovery programs of the Company's pipeline including guselkumab, developed by Janssen, which recently became the first approved drug based on MorphoSys's antibody technology. Prior to joining MorphoSys, Dr. Enzelberger, a chemist by training, worked at the California Insititute of Technology on the core technology of Fluidigm, a biotechnology company located in California/USA.

"Dr. Enzelberger is the perfect person to take over the CSO role at MorphoSys on a permanent basis. Drawing on his vast scientific expertise and experience in the management of antibody technology, research and discovery, he will continue to drive MorphoSys's early-stage research activities with the goal of fueling the Company's R&D pipeline with novel drug candidates in oncology and immunology. We look forward to continuing to work with him," commented Dr. Gerald Möller, Supervisory Board Chairman of MorphoSys AG.

"Dr. Sproll is now 17 years with the Company and we would like to thank her wholeheartedly for her invaluable contribution to MorphoSys over the past years, twelve of which she has served as the Company's CSO. Marlies is an incredible authority in the field of protein and antibody science and she has been instrumental in successfully transforming MorphoSys, initially from a young technology company to a global leader in the field of antibody research and development and, then, to a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing its own therapeutic antibody portfolio. We are happy that Marlies' tremendous experience will remain available to the Company, and wish her the very best for her new role at MorphoSys," Dr. Möller continued.

A picture of Dr. Markus Enzelberger can be downloaded here.

About MorphoSys:

MorphoSys's mission is to make exceptional, innovative biopharmaceuticals to improve the lives of patients suffering from serious diseases. Innovative technologies and smart development strategies are central to our approach. Success is created by our people, who focus on excellence in all they do, collaborate closely across disciplines and are driven by a desire to make the medicines of tomorrow a reality. Success benefits all of our stakeholders. Based on its proprietary technology platforms, particularly in the field of fully human therapeutic antibodies, MorphoSys, together with its partners, has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 110 programs in R&D, around a quarter of which is currently in clinical development.

In its proprietary development segment, MorphoSys, alone or with partners, is developing new therapeutic candidates, mainly focusing on cancer and inflammation. In its partnered discovery segment, MorphoSys uses its technologies to discover new drug candidates for pharmaceutical partners and participates from the programs' further development success, through success-based payments and royalties. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com.

HuCAL^(R), HuCAL GOLD^(R), HuCAL PLATINUM^(R), CysDisplay^(R), RapMAT^(R), arYla^(R), Ylanthia^(R), 100 billion high potentials^(R), Slonomics^(R), Lanthio Pharma^(R) and LanthioPep^(R) are registered trademarks of the MorphoSys Group.

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.