Harpoon: AbbVie will not exercise HPN217 license option of prior deal

Harpoon Therapeutics (HARP) that AbbVie (ABBV) has notified the company that it will not exercise the exclusive license option of the parties’ Development and Option Agreement in connection with Harpoon’s HPN217 program, which targets B cell maturation antigen, or BCMA. The Agreement, which will terminate effective October 12 granted AbbVie an option to a worldwide, exclusive license to the HPN217 program. The program has been and will remain exclusively owned by Harpoon, and the company plans to complete the ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial with data to support the next phase of development. “There is a significant unmet medical need for patients living with advanced multiple myeloma who have progressed after prior treatments, including patients with prior BCMA-targeted therapies, and we remain confident in HPN217’s potential to offer these patients a differentiated treatment option,” said Julie Eastland, President and CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics. “We will share interim results with the scientific community at the upcoming IMS meeting. The preliminary data from the HPN217 study continue to be encouraging with a favorable safety profile.”