Arix Bioscience plc Harpoon doses first patient in multiple myeloma trial

 
TIDMARIX 
 
Arix Bioscience plc 
 
             Harpoon doses first patient in multiple myeloma trial 
 
 Initiation of the clinical trial triggers $50 million milestone payment from 
                                    AbbVie 
 
LONDON, 27 April 2020: Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix") (LSE: ARIX), a global 
venture capital company focused on investing in and building breakthrough 
biotech companies, notes that its portfolio company Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. 
(NASDAQ: HARP), today announced that the first patient has been dosed with its 
product candidate, HPN217, in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial focused on relapsed, 
refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). HPN217 is being developed under a global 
license and option agreement with AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) and dosing of the 
first patient in a clinical trial has triggered a $50 million milestone payment 
to Harpoon. 
 
HPN217 is Harpoon's third product candidate to enter the clinic and is based on 
Harpoon's proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct (TriTACT) 
platform designed to recruit a patient's own immune cells to destroy tumours. 
 
The announcement can be accessed on Harpoon's investor website https:// 
ir.harpoontx.com/news-releases and full text of the announcement from Harpoon 
is contained below. 
 
                                    [S] 
 
Enquiries 
 
For more information on Arix, please contact: 
 
Arix Bioscience plc 
Charlotte Parry, Head of Investor Relations 
[phone] 
[e-mail] 
 
Optimum Strategic Communications 
Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur, Shabnam Bashir 
[phone] 
[e-mail] 
 
About Arix Bioscience plc 
 
Arix Bioscience plc is a global venture capital company focused on investing in 
and building breakthrough biotech companies around cutting edge advances in 
life sciences. 
 
We collaborate with exceptional entrepreneurs and provide the capital, 
expertise and global networks to help accelerate their ideas into important new 
treatments for patients. As a listed company, we are able to bring this 
exciting growth phase of our industry to a broader range of investors. 
 
www.arixbioscience.com 
 
HARPOON THERAPEUTICS DOSES FIRST PATIENT WITH HPN217, A BCMA TARGETING TRITAC, 
                             FOR MULTIPLE MYELOMA 
 
 Initiation of the clinical trial triggers $50 million milestone payment from 
                                    AbbVie 
 
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 27, 2020 -- Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. 
(NASDAQ: HARP), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class 
of T cell engagers, today announced that the first patient has been dosed with 
HPN217 in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial focused on relapsed, refractory multiple 
myeloma (RRMM). HPN217 is being developed under a global license and option 
agreement with AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) and dosing of the first patient in a 
clinical trial has triggered a $50 million milestone payment to Harpoon. HPN217 
targets B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a well-validated antigen expressed on 
malignant multiple myeloma calls. HPN217 is Harpoon's third product candidate 
to enter the clinic and is based on Harpoon's proprietary Tri-specific T cell 
Activating Construct (TriTACT) platform designed to recruit a patient's own 
immune cells to destroy tumors. 
 
"The initiation of a clinical trial for our third product candidate is another 
significant milestone for Harpoon and demonstrates the outstanding progress we 
are making in advancing our innovative oncology pipeline," said Gerald McMahon, 
Ph.D., President and CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics. "The $50 million milestone 
payment adds additional financial resources to support the HPN217 program and 
other development activities that we are conducting. The first patient was 
treated at Colorado Blood Cancer Institute and the Sarah Cannon Research 
Institute at HealthONE's Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center.  We are 
excited to be advancing HPN217 in the clinic and look forward to reporting our 
progress as this program matures." 
 
"Therapeutic choices for patients with RRMM are limited, and there is a need 
for additional therapeutic options," said Natalie Sacks, M.D., Chief Medical 
Officer of Harpoon. "Our non-clinical data suggest that HPN217 has substantial 
anticancer activity and provide the rationale to investigate its potential 
benefit as an effective immunotherapy for patients with multiple myeloma." 
 
About the Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial for HPN217 
 
This Phase 1/2 trial is a multicenter, open-label study designed to evaluate 
the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and activity of HPN217 in patients 
with RRMM. The Phase 1 portion of the trial is a dose escalation phase, with 
the goal of determining a recommended dose for the Phase 2 portion of the 
trial. HPN217 will be administered to patients once weekly by intravenous 
infusion. The primary outcome measures will be an assessment of safety and 
tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and determination of a dose for the Phase 2 
portion of the trial. Secondary endpoints include overall response rate, 
progression free and overall survival, and duration of response. 
 
The Phase 2 portion of the trial will further evaluate the safety and activity 
of HPN217 in patients with RRMM. The trial is titled, "A Phase 1/2 open-label, 
multicenter, dose escalation and dose expansion study of the safety, 
tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of HPN217 in patients with relapsed/ 
refractory multiple myeloma. For additional information about the trial, please 
visit  www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT04184050. 
 
About the Agreement with AbbVie 
 
In November 2019, Harpoon entered into a Development and Option Agreement with 
AbbVie pursuant to which Harpoon granted AbbVie an option to license worldwide 
exclusive rights to HPN217. Harpoon will be responsible for developing HPN217 
through a Phase 1/2 clinical trial. Upon exercise of the option, AbbVie would 
be responsible for all future clinical development, manufacturing and 
commercialization activities.  The licensing option for HPN217 may be exercised 
at any time up to the completion of the Phase 1/2 clinical trial.  The 
Development and Option Agreement represents a potential transaction value of up 
to $510 million in upfront, option and milestone payments, plus royalties on 
global commercial sales. In November 2019, Harpoon also expanded its existing 
discovery collaboration agreement by up to six additional targets for a total 
of eight targets.  AbbVie has the right to select four targets, representing a 
deal transaction value of approximately $1.2 billion plus royalties, with an 
option to select up to four additional targets. Harpoon would be eligible to 
receive up to $310 million plus royalties for each additional target selected. 
Harpoon received an initial upfront payment of $50 million in November 2019, 
with an additional $50 million payment due upon dosing the first patient with 
HPN217. 
 
About Harpoon Therapeutics 
 
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. Harpoon's first 
product, HPN424, targets PSMA and is in a Phase 1 trial for metastatic 
castration-resistant prostate cancer. Harpoon's second product, HPN536, targets 
mesothelin and is in a Phase 1/2a trial for cancers expressing mesothelin, 
initially focused on ovarian and pancreatic cancers. HPN217 targets BCMA and is 
in a Phase 1/2 trial for relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma. For additional 
information about Harpoon Therapeutics, please visit  www.harpoontx.com. 
 
Cautionary Note on Forward-looking Statements 
 
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of 
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," 
"will," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "target," "estimate," "intend" and 
similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future 
events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking 
statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Harpoon Therapeutics' 
expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Each of 
these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties that could 
cause Harpoon Therapeutics' clinical development programs, future results or 
performance to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the 
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press 
release include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated 
safety, efficacy and patient management benefits of HPN217 for the treatment of 
patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, anticipated advantages the 
TriTAC platform may have over other therapies, the progress, timing, scope and 
results of clinical trials, the association of data with treatment outcomes and 
the timing and likelihood of development milestones for product candidates. 
Many factors may cause differences between current expectations and actual 
results, including unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during clinical 
studies, clinical trial site activation or enrollment rates that are lower than 
expected, changes in expected or existing competition, changes in the 
regulatory environment, the uncertainties and timing of the regulatory approval 
process, and unexpected litigation or other disputes. Other factors that may 
cause Harpoon Therapeutics' actual results to differ from those expressed or 
implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release are discussed 

in Harpoon Therapeutics' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange 
Commission, including the "Risk Factors" sections contained therein. Except as 
required by law, Harpoon Therapeutics assumes no obligation to update any 
forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in 
expectations, even as new information becomes available. 
 
Contacts: 
 
Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. 
Georgia Erbez 
Chief Financial Officer 
650-443-7400 
[e-mail] 
 
Westwicke ICR 
Robert H. Uhl 
Managing Director 
858-356-5932 
[e-mail] 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2020 08:12 ET (12:12 GMT)