MorphoSys Announces Launch of American Depositary Shares (ADS) Offering in the United States

On April 9, 2018 MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) reported that it has commenced an initial public offering in the United States of up to 8,300,000 American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form F-1, as amended, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Press release, MorphoSys, APR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234556337]). Furthermore, MorphoSys expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase additional ADSs of up to 15% of the total number of ADSs placed in the offering (i.e. up to 1,245,000 additional ADSs). Each ADS will represent 1/4 of a MorphoSys ordinary share. The new ordinary shares underlying the ADSs will be issued from MorphoSys’s authorized capital 2017-II, excluding pre-emptive rights of existing shareholders and representing up to 8.1% (including the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs) of the registered share capital of MorphoSys prior to the consummation of the offering.

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The final price of the offered ADSs will be determined largely on the basis of the XETRA closing price of MorphoSys’s shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on the pricing date (expected for the week of April 16, 2018) translated into U.S. dollars at the then prevailing exchange rate and using an ADS to share ratio of four to one. Application has been made to list the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market in the United States under the ticker symbol "MOR".

Within the United States of America, the securities referred to in this release are to be offered only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the preliminary prospectus can be obtained from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 1-212-902-9316 or by e-mailing [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204; Leerink Partners LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, by telephone at 1-800-808-7525, ext. 6132, or by e-mailing [email protected].

A Registration Statement relating to these securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the Registration Statement becomes effective.

Genocea to Present Data at Upcoming AACR Annual Meeting Further Highlighting ATLAS Platform Ability to Identify and Characterize Neoantigens for Cancer Vaccines

On April 9, 2018 Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing neoantigen cancer vaccines, reported upcoming presentations at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) (AACR 2018), taking place April 14-18, 2018 in Chicago, IL (Press release, Genocea Biosciences, APR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234525216]).

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Poster 15: "Neoantigen identification using the ATLAS T cell profiling platform highlights the need to empirically define neoantigens"
Vaccines Session 1, Immunology Track
Sunday, April 15, 2018 from 1 pm to 5 pm CDT
Link to abstract

Poster 5718: "Ex vivo ATLAS-identification of neoantigens for personalized cancer immunotherapy in mouse melanoma"
Neoantigens in Cancer Session, Immunology Track
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 from 8 am to 12 pm CDT

Horizon Pharma plc to Release First-Quarter 2018 Financial Results and Host Webcast on May 9, 2018

On April 9, 2018 Horizon Pharma plc (Nasdaq:HZNP) reported that its first-quarter financial results will be released on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 (Press release, Horizon Pharma, APR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234525217]). Following the announcement, Horizon’s management will host a live webcast at 8 a.m. Eastern Time to review the Company’s financial and operating results.

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The live webcast and replay may be accessed at View Source Please connect to the Company’s website at least 15 minutes before the live webcast to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be needed to access the webcast.

IONTAS and IGEM Therapeutics collaborate to identify novel IgE antibodies for cancer targets

On April 9, 2018 IONTAS Limited (IONTAS), a leader in the discovery and optimisation of fully human antibodies, reported that it will collaborate with IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer (Press release, IGEM Therapeutics, APR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234525218]). The project will add to IGEM’s pipeline of drugs and expand upon IGEM-F, an IgE targeting ovarian and other cancers, currently in a Phase 1/2a study. IONTAS will utilise its proprietary antibody discovery technology to help IGEM identify novel IgE antibodies against two targets.

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IgE antibodies have been shown to permeate tumour tissue more effectively, exhibit enhanced effector functions and stimulate significantly greater levels of cytotoxicity and phagocytosis than IgG antibodies. IONTAS will apply its proprietary antibody discovery libraries and technologies to identify specific, high-affinity antibodies against two tumour-associated targets. Functional screening of IgE-formatted antibodies will be carried out to identify the most appropriate candidates for therapeutic development.

John McCafferty, CEO at IONTAS, commented: "This collaboration capitalises on the antibody discovery capabilities at IONTAS which enable the generation of high-quality therapeutic antibodies using phage-display or mammalian-display. We maintain a strong interest in developing novel therapeutic approaches and recognise IgE therapeutics as an important addition to the armoury of novel cancer therapies. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with fellow innovators at IGEM on these two exciting projects."

Tim Wilson, CEO at IGEM, commented: "IONTAS was selected as our development partner of choice because of their extensive experience and track record in delivering therapeutic antibodies. The combination of the IGEM IgE platform and the discovery capability of IONTAS will rapidly expand our portfolio of antibodies and help meet our ambitions to progress new leads into the clinic."

Gustave Roussy and Protagen AG collaborate to improve the risk profiling of cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy

On April 9, 2018 Protagen AG and Gustave Roussy have reported the start of a collaboration to utilize Protagen’s SeroTag technology to help identify biomarkers that predict and monitor immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors (Press release, Protagen, APR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234525247]).

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Checkpoint inhibitors offer enormous potential for the treatment of many cancer indications, including melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Yet, only a subset of patients respond favorably to treatment and it is not currently possible to predict which patients will benefit from therapy. In addition, checkpoint inhibitors can also trigger (often severe) irAEs, which has led to the FDA halting clinical trials in the past. Through this new collaboration, Protagen and Gustave Roussy will utilize Protagen’s proprietary immune system profiling platform, SeroTag, to monitor patients, detect irAEs and ultimately conduct comprehensive risk profiling for those undergoing cancer immunotherapy. This project is part of the ongoing Gustave Roussy Immunotherapy Program (GRIP), which aims at developing immunotherapy access and best practice.

Dr. Aurelien Marabelle, clinical director of the Gustave Roussy Immunotherapy Program commented: "Although immunotherapies like checkpoint inhibitors have shown great promise for treating those suffering from cancer, response rates for these therapies are still low (often around 10-20%). In addition, our efforts to improve therapeutic outcomes via the implementation of combination therapies can increase the risk of the patient developing debilitating and sometimes fatal irAEs." He continued: "It is therefore vital that we try to understand more about the immunological responses patients are exhibiting to cancer, both before and during therapy. Utilizing Protagen’s SeroTag platform will enable us to ask these questions, and we very much look forward to this collaboration."

Dr. Peter Schulz-Knappe, Protagen’s Chief Scientific Officer, added: "Our unique SeroTag technology has already demonstrated its ability to stratify patients into homogenous disease subgroups for a number of autoimmune indications, thereby supporting the development of novel therapies. Due to the strong link between immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease, we believe that applying our technology and approach to the immuno-oncology field will result in improved patient selection for novel immuno-therapies and support the risk profiling of patients for the development of irAEs. We feel privileged that Gustave Roussy shares this view and we are excited about our collaboration."

About Gustave Roussy

Gustave Roussy, the largest comprehensive cancer center in Europe, is a pole of expertise dedicated to the comprehensive care of patients, employing 3100 health professionals for health care, research and teaching. Gustave Roussy is the European leader in cancer immunotherapy in terms of clinical trials and number of patients treated – www.gustaveroussy.fr/en