Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $7.5 million, up from $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Full-year 2020 revenue was $17.4 million versus $5.8 million in 2019. R&D expense was $15.1 million for the quarter and $52.6 million for the year, compared with $12.7 million and $41.6 million a year earlier. G&A expense was $3.9 million for the quarter and $16.2 million for the year, versus $4.3 million and $22.4 million in the prior-year periods. Net loss was $11.4 million for Q4 and $49.9 million for the full year, compared with $14.3 million and $55.6 million last year. Harpoon ended 2020 with $150 million in cash and cash equivalents, and pro forma cash was approximately $258 million after the January 2021 follow-on offering raised about $108.1 million net. Management guided 2021 operating cash use to approximately $85 million to $95 million.

Gerry McMahon emphasized that 2020 was a year of major pipeline execution and that Harpoon hit its IPO goal of having four programs in the clinic by end-2020. His tone was upbeat and confident, with repeated emphasis on the breadth of the platform, the progress across both TriTAC and ProTriTAC, and the company’s ability to generate multiple data readouts in 2021. He also highlighted the strengthened balance sheet as support for advancing each program toward value-creating milestones.

Georgia Erbez said revenue growth was primarily from the AbbVie development and option agreement, and reminded listeners that the revenue is non-cash amortization of upfront cash already received. She cited R&D of $15.1 million in Q4 and $52.6 million for 2020, with higher clinical development and personnel costs partly offset by lower manufacturing costs. G&A declined to $3.9 million in Q4 and $16.2 million for the year, mainly due to lower legal expense, and she noted year-end cash of $150 million plus about $108.1 million net proceeds from the January 2021 financing, taking pro forma cash to $258 million. She also guided 2021 operating cash use to $85 million-$95 million.

Analysts focused on HPN424’s ASCO abstract and how to interpret the upcoming data, and management said an abstract has been submitted and the update should be a broad, comprehensive look at safety, activity, PK/PD, and target-engagement markers. Questions on the Novartis PSMA readout drew a cautious response: Harpoon said it is watching the trial closely but will be careful about read-through because the modality is different even though the target is the same. Analysts also pressed on ProTriTAC, competitor prodrug approaches, and possible legal implications from the Maverick/Takeda acquisition; management said it could not comment on litigation, had no known strategic impact yet, and views ProTriTAC as useful for targets that would be too risky for a constitutively active TriTAC. There were also questions on expansion cohorts, combinations, and whether HPN328 requires patient selection; management said combinations are under active consideration, especially in prostate cancer, and that DLL3 selection is not required in SCLC, though other tumor types may be enrolled based on pathology evidence of DLL3 expression.