On January 8, 2024, Merck, a global health care company, and Harpoon Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T-cell engagers designed to harness the power of the body’s immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases, announced that they 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. Closing of the acquisition is subject to certain conditions and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Harpoon Therapeutics on IP matters related to the transaction.

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. The deal will allow Merck to expand its cancer pipeline with this pipeline of T-cell engagers.

The Wilson Sonsini team that advised Harpoon Therapeutics on IP matters related to the transaction includes Clark Lin, Angel Wang, Sherrie Holdman, Megan Jamroz, and Weiwei Dai.

For more information, please see the joint press release.