Inflammatory disorders include conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease. Additionally, certain bone-related indications involve inflammatory processes. As such, inflammatory diseases represent a major pharmaceutical market with many millions of patients being affected.
MorphoSys’s lead compound, MOR103, is a fully human HuCAL-based antibody directed against GM-CSF, a therapeutic target for the treatment of various inflammatory disorders. MOR103 is currently being evaluated in a clinical phase 1b/2a trial in rheumatoid arthritis and a phase 1b trial in MS . Around 1 % of the global population is thought to be affected by rheumatoid arthritis, which makes it the largest single market in the area of inflammatory diseases.
