MorphoSys Appoints Dr Arndt Schottelius as Chief Development Officer and Member of the Management Board

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) today
appointed Dr Arndt Schottelius (42), as its first Chief Development
Officer, responsible for coordinating the Group's expanding
therapeutic antibody development activities including pre-clinical
and clinical drug development. Dr Schottelius joins MorphoSys from
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, where he served as the Director
of Immunology, Tissue Growth & Repair Early Development and most
recently as Medical Director, Immunology Development, directing
late-stage clinical development studies for the anti-CD20 antibodies
Rituximab and Ocrelizumab in rheumatoid arthritis. Prior to his
position at Genentech, Dr Schottelius held science and management
positions in immunology research at Berlex Biosciences, CA, USA, and
Schering AG, Berlin, Germany. The appointment of Dr Schottelius will
take effect on December 29, 2008.

"I am delighted to welcome Dr Schottelius to the management team of
MorphoSys. He brings unique knowledge and a track record in drug
development as well as profound management expertise from Genentech,
the industry's leading source of biopharmaceuticals, that will assist
MorphoSys in achieving its pipeline growth plans over the coming
years," commented Dr Gerald Möller, Chairman of MorphoSys AG. "The
ability to attract such a highly-experienced person to lead
MorphoSys's expanding development efforts underpins the
attractiveness of MorphoSys as a drug developer. We see Dr
Schottelius's pharmaceutical experience from his time with Schering
in Germany and the USA as also being invaluable to MorphoSys."

"I'm excited about the prospect of working with the MorphoSys
management team to build a strong therapeutic antibody pipeline,"
says Dr Arndt Schottelius. "MorphoSys's HuCAL technology platform is
without doubt one of the best sources of antibody-based drugs in the
industry. In addition to its extraordinary antibody-based expertise,
the company has financial strength that sets it apart from many other
companies in the biotechnology arena and a very international and
innovative culture that has attracted me. I'm looking forward to
putting my experience in antibody drug development to work for the
benefit of the company."

During his career Dr Schottelius has established a successful track
record of advancing therapeutics from late stage research into
clinical development. He has gathered extensive experience in
discovery and in-licensing activities, portfolio management,
pre-clinical and clinical development as well as FDA negotiations and
regulatory filings. After medical studies in Germany, the United
Kingdom and Switzerland Dr Schottelius received his PhD and MD
degrees from the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany.
Subsequently he practiced medicine as a resident physician in
gastroenterology at the Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany,
and held a research fellowship from the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation
of America at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before
moving into the pharmaceutical industry.

For further information please contact: Dr. Claudia Gutjahr-Löser,
Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Tel: +49 (0)
89 / 899 27-122, gutjahr-loeser@morphosys.com or Mario Brkulj,
Manager Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Tel: +49 (0)
89 / 899 27-454, brkulj@morphosys.com

About MorphoSys:
MorphoSys is a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on the
generation of fully human antibodies as a means to discover and
develop innovative antibody-based drugs against life-threatening
diseases. MorphoSys's goal is to establish HuCAL as the technology of
choice for antibody generation in research, diagnostics and
therapeutic applications. The Company currently has therapeutic and
research alliances with the majority of the world's largest
pharmaceutical companies including Boehringer Ingelheim,
Centocor/Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche. Within these
partnerships, more than 50 therapeutic antibody programs are ongoing
in which MorphoSys participates through exclusive license and
milestones payments as well as royalties on any end products.
Additionally, MorphoSys is active in the antibody research market
through its AbD Serotec business unit. The business unit has
operations in Germany (Munich), the U.S. (Raleigh, NC) and U.K.
(Oxford). For further information please visit
http://www.morphosys.com/

HuCAL® and HuCAL GOLD® are registered trademarks of MorphoSys AG

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.

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