Merck Inc., to acquire Harpoon Therapeutics and with it HPN 328.
Merck Inc, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, and Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Merck, through a subsidiary, will acquire Harpoon for $23.00 per share in cash for an approximate total equity value of $680 million
Harpoon’s lead candidate, HPN 328, is a T-cell engager targeting delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3), an inhibitory canonical Notch ligand that is expressed at high levels in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and neuroendocrine tumors. HPN 328 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/II clinical trial (NCT04471727) evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of HPN 328 monotherapy in patients with advanced cancers associated with expression of DLL3. The study is also evaluating HPN 328 in combination with atezolizumab in patients with SCLC. In October 2023, Harpoon announced the presentation of positive interim tolerability and response data for HPN 328 in certain patients with SCLC and neuroendocrine tumors. Harpoon has developed a portfolio of novel T-cell engagers that employ the company’s proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct (TriTAC ) platform, an engineered protein technology designed to direct a patient’s own immune cells to kill tumor cells, and ProTriTAC platform, applying a prodrug concept to its TriTAC platform to create a therapeutic T-cell engager that is designed to remain inactive until it reaches the tumor.
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