March 2 Quick Takes: MorphoSys laying off staff, ending preclinical work

Taking steps to “optimize its cost structure,” MorphoSys AG (Xetra:MOR; NASDAQ:MOR) will lay off 17% of its staff and discontinue all of its preclinical research programs, with the goal of supporting its mid-to-late stage pipeline. The decision comes about nine months after the biotech offloaded two clinical immunology programs to venture-backed Human Immunology Biosciences Inc. — informally, HI-Bio. MorphoSys, which had more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in cash at Sept. 30, said it will “explore other options” for the preclinical programs.

Belgium’s Flamingo Therapeutics Inc. and France’s Dynacure S.A.S. will merge to create an oncology company focused on Flamingo’s danvatirsen, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting STAT3 that is in Phase II testing for head and neck cancer, and FTX-001, an IND-ready long non-coding RNA therapy targeting MALAT 1 for solid tumors. The combined company will retain Flamingo’s name and be led by Dynacure CEO Stéphane van Rooijen  as CEO and Flamingo CEO Michael Garrett, who will be COO. Flamingo investors Kurma Partners and PMV made an undisclosed investment in the company. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed...