“We are excited to share this clinical update from our HPN424 clinical trial. These data suggest that HPN424 is active and that the expected cytokine-mediated adverse events can be managed,” said Natalie Sacks, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Harpoon. “Our goal is to develop an effective immunotherapy treatment option for patients with prostate cancer.”
Trial Design and Interim Results from the HPN424 Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial
This Phase 1/2a trial is a multicenter, open-label study designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and activity of HPN424 in patients with mCRPC who are progressing at the time of enrollment and have had at least two prior systemic treatments for metastatic disease. The initial ongoing phase of the trial is dose escalation, with the goal of determining a recommended dose for the expansion phase. The escalation phase began with single patient cohorts and transitioned to a 3x3 design when Grade 2 toxicity was observed. A step dosing regimen was introduced in December 2020. HPN424 is being administered to patients once weekly by intravenous infusion and the primary outcome measures are an assessment of safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. Secondary endpoints include duration of response, progression free and overall survival. Tumor assessments include PSA, CT and bone scans performed every 9 weeks.
As of the April 23, 2021 cut-off date, 89 patients have been treated in 13 cohorts with fixed doses ranging from 1.3 to 160 ng/kg and step dosing up to 300ng/kg using various regimens. Enrolled patients had a median of 5 prior therapies, including 73% with prior chemotherapy, and a median of two prior novel hormonal agents. Median PSA level was 129, with a range of 0.1-5000 ng/ml. The most frequent adverse events were cytokine release syndrome (CRS) ((all grade n=61 (69%), grade >3 n=4 (4%)), chills ((all grade n=60 (67%), grade >3 n=0 (0%)), and pyrexia ((all grade n=58 (65%), grade >3 n=2 (2%)). The majority of CRS events occurred with the first dose.
Dose Limiting Toxicities (DLTs) were observed at doses ranging from 96 to 300ng/kg and did not limit escalation and Maximum Tolerated Dose has not been reached. The most common DLTs were Transaminitis G4 (n=6) and Cytokine Release Syndrome G3 (n=4). The most common reason for study discontinuation was progressive disease; two of 89 (2%) patients discontinued treatment due to treatment-related AEs.
HPN424 demonstrated dose proportional increase in Cmax and AUC. Reduction in CTCs was seen in 36 of 64 (56%) patients with available baseline and on-treatment CTC counts. Fifteen of 74 (20%) pts with >1 post-baseline value had PSA decreases from baseline ranging from -2% to -76%, including 4 pts with PSA50 response and 2 pts with PSA30 response. A confirmed PR was observed in a patient treated at 160 ng/kg and that patient remains on study at 41 weeks.
Patients continue to be enrolled in the escalation and step dosing phase of the trial, with a goal to identify a dose for an expansion phase. The expansion phase of the trial will further evaluate the safety and activity of HPN424 in patients with mCRPC. This trial is titled, “Study of HPN424 in Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer”. For additional information about the trial, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT03577028.
Conference Call and Webcast Today
Harpoon’s management will host a webcast and conference call at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Friday, June 4, 2021 to review the data and provide an update on other pipeline programs. The live call may be accessed by dialing 866-951-6894 for domestic callers or 409-216-0624 for international callers and using conference ID # 2657278.
A live webcast of the call will be available from the Events and Presentations section of the company’s website at https://ir.harpoontx.com/events-and-presentations and will be archived there shortly after the live event.
