AbbVie exercises licensing option for a drug from Harpoon collaboration

AbbVie and Harpoon Therapeutics have announced that the former will has licensed the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeting drug HPN217 for multiple myeloma from the pair’s drug discovery collaboration. AbbVie and Harpoon entered into a drug discovery collaboration in October 2017 to leverage the latter’s Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct (TriTAC) technology to discover T cell-focused immuno-oncology drugs. Financial terms of this collaboration were not publicly disclosed by either company. AbbVie’s decision to exercise the option and licensing of HPN217 represents a payment of up to $510m in upfront, option and milestone payments to Harpoon; $50m could be paid by AbbVie once the first patient is treated with HPN217 in a clinical trial. Harpoon Therapeutics chief medical officer Natalie Sacks commented: “As our pipeline of initial TriTAC clinical candidates advance in prostate and ovarian cancers, we are thrilled to partner with AbbVie in pursuit of therapies geared towards haematologic cancers.