Morphotek’s Immune System Technology Spells Steady Growth
Sometimes the best defense is a good offense—a philosophy that lies at the core of Morphotek’s medical research and products. Morphotek develops antibodies that help the body’s own immune system fight cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases.
Morphotek develops antibodies that help the body's own immune system fight cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases.
The technique is called morphogenics, a technology that regulates the ability of a host organism to repair mutations that occur during DNA replication. Invented by founders Dr. Nicholas Nicolaides, Dr. Philip Sass and Dr. Luigi Grass, Morphotek uses morphogenics to develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which work to fight cancerous cells. Three of the company’s mAb programs are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of various cancer types with several others in preclinical development.
Morphotek began in 2000, and the Exton-based company has grown tremendously since then. When the founders recognized that this technology could improve biopharmaceutical product development, they set to work formulating a business plan.
Help When It’s Needed Most
The company gained critical startup support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP).
“You struggle as a first-time entrepreneur because you aren’t sure what steps are necessary to build a business from scratch, or what infrastructure is necessary to effectively run the business,” says Nicolaides. “Simply having a good idea doesn’t translate into a successful business. With BFTP’s review process, we formulated a succinct business proposition and long-term goals that helped attract our first round of venture capital. BFTP propelled us forward and made our venture a reality. Without their support, we wouldn’t have gotten started.”
Receiving BFTP funding was a vote of confidence that drew a series of local and international angel investors to invest more than two million dollars, according to Nicolaides. BFTP/SEP invested $50,000 to launch the company in 2000 and followed up with another $150,000 in January of 2001.
Without early support from BFTP/SEP, we never would have made it to this point. —Dr. Nicholas Nicolaides, Co-founder, Morphotek
Once Morphotek received seed funding from BFTP/SEP, they were able to get their operation off the ground by purchasing equipment. Soon after, they secured lab space for research and development. Nicolaides counts these two events as laying the groundwork for Morphotek and officially starting the company in earnest.
Steady Growth Leading to Acquisition
In 2007, Morphotek was bought by Eisai Co., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, for $325 million. Eisai’s marketing strength and infrastructure are now available to Morphotek as it looks forward to continued growth and innovation in its highly specialized field.
Morphotek has continued to expand. Today, they have 140 employees, and construction has begun on a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility adjacent to their current location in Exton. The new manufacturing facility means the creation of around 80 new high-tech jobs at the company.
“Ultimately, our goal is to be a fully integrated biopharmaceutical unit to supply our parent company regulatory-approved drugs, and having a manufacturing facility is part of that process,” Nicolaides says.
Morphotek continues to solidify its position as an emerging leader in the life sciences industry. Morphotek has multiple therapeutic antibodies in clinical development that are being used to treat various types of cancers. One of these antibodies, called farletuzumab, is currently in a worldwide pivotal trial for patients with relapsed ovarian cancer. The company anticipates bringing the drug to market by 2013.
“Without early support from BFTP/SEP, we never would have made it to this point,” says Nicolaides. “We are pleased to have received support from so many investors and local groups that enabled us to pursue our passion for research and biomedical advancement that is the essence of Morphotek as its known today. We are continuing to take positive steps for building Morphotek and developing new drugs to treat patients with unmet medical conditions, and thank BFTP/SEP for their support in helping start the company.”
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