Harpoon Finds A Blood Cancer Partner In AbbVie

Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. has expanded an immuno-oncology drug discovery collaboration with AbbVie to include an option license for a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeting T-cell engager poised to enter the clinic in 2020 for multiple myeloma.

The option deal is part of an expanded collaboration between the two partners that was announced on 21 November. AbbVie first partnered with Harpoon in October 2017 in a drug discovery collaboration to use Harpoon's Tri-specific T-cell Activating Construct (TRiTAC) platform with two of AbbVie's immuno-oncology targets to develop novel cancer drugs. Harpoon's TRiTAC platform produces novel T-cell engagers, engineered proteins that direct a patient's T-cells to kill cancer cells, targeting solid tumors and hematological malignancies