ABBV AbbVie Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. (HARP) rose nearly 7% on Thursday after the immunotherapy company expanded its work with AbbVie Inc. (ABBV).

Harpoon said it signed a license and option agreement with AbbVie for its HPN217 drug candidate, and the companies agreed to expand their existing discovery collaboration to include up to six additional targets.

The expanded deal, which includes $50 million upfront and an additional $50 million when the first patient is dosed with HPN217, carries milestone payments potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Harpoon.

Analysts at SVB Leerink reiterated their "outperform" rating on Harpoon shares and raised their price target to $28 from $24, saying the expanded deal with AbbVie further validates Harpoon's platform and extends its cash runway into the second half of 2022.

Harpoon shares were recently up 6.4%, to $15.39.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2019 12:20 ET (17:20 GMT)

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