Harpoon Therapeutics & Roche to Collaborate on Clinical Trials to Study Novel Immuno-Oncology Combination for Small Cell Lung Cancer

Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. recently announced it has entered into a clinical supply agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Roche) to supply atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for use in the company’s HPN328, a DLL3 targeting TriTAC, clinical development program.

“We are pleased to enter into this clinical supply agreement with Roche as it enables us to investigate the impact of HPN328 on solid tumors in combination with atezolizumab and provide further insight into the capabilities of our TriTAC technology platform,” stated Julie Eastland, President and CEO, Harpoon Therapeutics. “We are pleased with the compelling profile emerging in our monotherapy study and we plan to initiate combination trials in multiple lines of therapy for patients with small cell lung cancer, a disease with unmet medical need.”

Under this agreement, Harpoon is the sponsor of the anticipated clinical trials, and Roche will supply atezolizumab.

HPN328 is a DLL3 targeting TriTAC being studied as a single agent in an ongoing clinical trial for patients with small cell lung cancer, neuroendocrine and other DLL3-associated tumors. The Phase 1/2 trial is an open-label study of HPN328 to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in patients with advanced cancers associated with expression of DLL3. HPN328 is being administered in fixed and step dosing to patients once weekly by intravenous infusion with dose escalation until a therapeutic dose level has been achieved. The primary outcome measure will be safety and tolerability, and to determine a dose for Phase 2.

Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that harness the power of the body’s immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases. T cell engagers are engineered proteins that direct a patient’s own T cells to kill target cells that express specific proteins, or antigens, carried by the target cells. Using its proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct (TriTAC) platform, Harpoon is developing a pipeline of novel TriTACs initially focused on the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. HPN217 targets BCMA and is in a Phase 1/2 trial for relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma. HPN328 targets DLL3 and is in a Phase 1/2 trial for small cell lung cancer and other DLL3-associated tumors. HPN536 targets mesothelin and is in a Phase 1/2a trial for cancers expressing mesothelin, initially focused on ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Harpoon has also developed a proprietary ProTriTAC platform, which applies a prodrug concept to its TriTAC platform to create a therapeutic T cell engager that remains inactive until it reaches the tumor. The company’s third proprietary technology platform, extended release TriTAC-XR, is designed to mitigate cytokine release syndrome. For more information, visit www.harpoontx.com.