Monday, March 11, 2024

Power Alley: Merck Closes M&A Deal; Now Owns Harpoon Therapeutics, For ~$650 Million...


The Hart Scott Rodino waiting period had expired about a week ago (without an added request from the Antitrust Division), and we mentioned the original inking of the purchase contract, here two months ago. . . but it is now put to bed. The assets are owned by Rahway, as of this morning, and the Harpoon stock symbol has stopped trading -- on the NASDAQ.

Good news -- but even so, as a cogent commenter pointed out in January, there have been some reports of off-target effects in the T-cell engager space (but the patients often face dire circumstances, with SCLC -- without therapy).

Here's the latest:

. . .[Rahway today completed] the acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HARP). Harpoon is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck, and Harpoon’s common stock will no longer be publicly traded or listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

“We continue to augment and diversify our oncology pipeline with innovative approaches to help people with cancer worldwide,” said Dr. Dean Y. Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “We are pleased to welcome our Harpoon colleagues to Merck and look forward to working together to advance a novel portfolio of T-cell engagers, including MK-6070.”

Harpoon’s lead candidate, MK-6070 (formerly known as HPN328), 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. The safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of MK-6070 is currently being evaluated as monotherapy in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT04471727) in certain patients with advanced cancers associated with expression of DLL3. The study is also evaluating MK-6070 in combination with atezolizumab in certain patients with SCLC. In March 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Orphan Drug Designation to MK-6070 for the treatment of SCLC. . . .


[With our second (smaller) graphic, at left, we remind readers of an AI-powered diagnostics deal Merck has, in the oncology space.]

Now you know -- onward, grinning -- sunny here!

नमस्ते

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