Spearheading Immunotherapies
Harpoon is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that unleash the natural power of the T cells to fight cancer and other diseases.
At the heart of Harpoon’s approach is a novel antibody-derived platform called TriTAC® (Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct) designed for targeted penetration and destruction of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, and engineered to bind to human serum albumin for improved therapeutic schedule and patient convenience.
Management Team
Julie Eastland
President and Chief Executive Officer
Julie Eastland is a seasoned strategic and financial executive with more than 25 years of experience in the public and private biotechnology industry. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of ReCode Therapeutics, a private genetic medicines company developing therapeutics using its proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery technology to target organs and tissues beyond the liver. Prior to ReCode, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Rainier Therapeutics, a private biopharmaceutical company focused on FGFR3 bladder cancer. Prior to Rainier, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Cascadian Therapeutics, a publicly-traded oncology company that was acquired by Seattle Genetics in 2018. While at Cascadian, she was instrumental in the negotiation and sale of the company, primarily for its product tucatinib, a HER2 targeted breast cancer therapy now marketed as Tukysa®. Prior to Cascadian, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Operations of VLST Corporation, a privately-held biotechnology company, and held various financial and strategic management positions at publicly traded biotechnology companies including Dendreon and Amgen. Ms. Eastland received an M.B.A. from Edinburgh University Management School and a B.S. in finance from Colorado State University. In addition to serving on the board at Harpoon Therapeutics, she serves on the board of Dynavax Technologies (Nasdaq: DVAX) and Graybug Vision (Nasdaq: GRAY).
Banmeet Anand, PhD
Senior Vice President, Translational Medicine
Dr. Anand joined Harpoon in March 2022 as Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine with more than 18 years of experience in the discovery and development of antibodies (naked, ADCs and bi-specific), small molecules, and cellular therapies (NK-T, CAR-T). Dr. Anand most recently was Vice President of non-clinical development at Molecular Templates where he led toxicology, pharmacology, non-clinical/clinical PK/PD, IND-enabling studies supporting translational research and clinical programs for immunotoxins. Dr. Anand previously held management and scientific positions at NantKwest, Astellas (Agensys) and Genentech where he was involved in early and late development of multiple approved drugs such as RITUXAN®, PADCEV® and OCREVUS®. Dr. Anand received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Wendy Chang
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Wendy Chang joined Harpoon Therapeutics in July 2022 as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, bringing over 20 years of human resources experience in life sciences and an extensive background in aligning talent with organizations’ overall vision and direction. Most recently, Ms. Chang was VP, Head of People & Culture for IDbyDNA. She previously served as Vice President, Human Resources at Gilead Sciences from 2003 to 2020 and, earlier in her career, at Bio-Rad Laboratories. Ms. Chang received a B.S. in accounting and business/management from University of California, Riverside and completed the Global Fellow of Talent Management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Chatan Charan, Phd
Senior Vice President, Product Development, Technical and Manufacturing Operations
Dr. Charan joined Harpoon in November 2022 as Senior Vice President, Product Development, Technical and Manufacturing Operations. He has served the pharmaceutical industry for three decades with demonstrated leadership in drug development and management. Prior to joining Harpoon, Dr. Charan served as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development of Nektar Therapeutics, where he spearheaded strategic direction and execution of all drug product development as well as external manufacturing activities. Dr. Charan received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia in Pharmaceutics.
Luke Walker, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Walker joined Harpoon Therapeutics in October 2022 with over 15 years of clinical practice, research and drug development experience. Dr. Walker most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Development at Seagen Inc., where he oversaw multiple early-stage clinical programs. He was also responsible for leading TUKYSA® (tucatinib) through successful approval and commercial launch in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer as Global Development Lead and worked on tucatinib’s early-stage development at Cascadian Therapeutics Inc., which was acquired by Seagen. Prior to his career in clinical drug development, Dr. Walker practiced for several years as a medical oncologist and served as Principal Investigator in numerous Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials. Dr. Walker received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and completed his fellowship training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Haibo Wang
Senior Vice President, Business Development
Haibo Wang joined Harpoon Therapeutics in July 2023 as Senior Vice President, Business Development, with 15 years of biopharma business development, finance and M&A transaction experiences. He most recently served as Vice President of business development at Hummingbird Bioscience, responsible for the biotech’s end-to-end business development activities. Prior to Hummingbird, he was director of business development at Amgen Inc., where he led various strategic partnerships, acquisitions, equity investments, clinical collaborations, and out-licensing transactions. Notable transactions include Five Prime Therapeutics and Teneobio acquisitions, the oncology collaboration with BeiGene, out-licensing of AMG 634, and many clinical collaborations to advance Amgen’s oncology pipeline. In his early years at Amgen, he also held various strategic finance and commercial positions. Prior to Amgen, Haibo was an M&A consultant at Deloitte and advised on numerous transactions in the healthcare and tech sectors in China. Haibo received his MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, MBA from Duke University, and bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University.
Board of Directors
Joseph S. Bailes, MD
Dr. Bailes is a medical oncologist with substantial experience in clinical practice, legislation, public policy, advocacy and business. For nearly two decades, he served in various executive leadership capacities for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), including terms as President, Interim Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chair of the ASCO Government Relations Council. He has spent the last decade advising and consulting in the biopharmaceutical industry for a number of companies including Telik, Kite, Lilly, and G1. Dr. Bailes has many years of experience in the practice of oncology in the private sector as a former partner in Texas Oncology, P.A., the largest oncology practice group in the country, and as a founding member of Physician Reliance Network (PRN), one of the corporate predecessors to US Oncology, Inc. Dr. Bailes served as President of PRN Research, where he oversaw clinical trials and drug development activities. Subsequently, he was Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs with US Oncology, and has served on several Boards of Directors within the pharmaceutical and banking industries. Dr. Bailes received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, followed by his internship and residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. He completed his Medical Oncology/Hematology Fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Additionally, Dr. Bailes has served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
Mark Chin, MS, MBA
Mark Chin is currently a Managing Director at Arix Bioscience, a biotechnology focused venture capital firm. Prior to Arix, Mark was a principal at Longitude Capital, where he focused on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies. Prior to Longitude, he was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was responsible for strategy and corporate development projects for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Before BCG, he worked in corporate development at Gilead Sciences and market planning at Genentech. Mark is also a Director of Imara and Iterum Therapeutics and a number of privately held biotechnology companies. He has an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Management Science from the University of California at San Diego.
Jonathan Drachman, MD
Dr. Drachman has more than 20 years of academic research, clinical oncology and biotechnology experience, most recently as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Seattle Genetics, where he played a key role in the clinical development of Adcetris and advancing the pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates and immuno-oncology drug candidates. He currently serves as Strategic Advisor for Innovation for Seattle Genetics. Dr. Drachman completed his internal medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Washington and was a faculty member in the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1998 through 2004. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Drachman also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Calithera Biosciences.
Julie Eastland, MBA
Julie Eastland is a seasoned strategic and financial executive with more than 25 years of experience in the public and private biotechnology industry. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of ReCode Therapeutics, a private genetic medicines company developing therapeutics using its proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery technology to target organs and tissues beyond the liver. Prior to ReCode, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Rainier Therapeutics, a private biopharmaceutical company focused on FGFR3 bladder cancer. Prior to Rainier, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Cascadian Therapeutics, a publicly-traded oncology company that was acquired by Seattle Genetics in 2018. While at Cascadian, she was instrumental in the negotiation and sale of the company, primarily for its product tucatinib, a HER2 targeted breast cancer therapy now marketed as Tukysa®. Prior to Cascadian, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Operations of VLST Corporation, a privately-held biotechnology company, and held various financial and strategic management positions at publicly traded biotechnology companies including Dendreon and Amgen. Ms. Eastland received an M.B.A. from Edinburgh University Management School and a B.S. in finance from Colorado State University. In addition to serving on the board at Harpoon Therapeutics, she serves on the board of Dynavax Technologies (Nasdaq: DVAX) and Graybug Vision (Nasdaq: GRAY).
Ron Hunt, MBA
Ron Hunt is a managing director at New Leaf Venture Partners, and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical companies. Hunt was one of the founders of New Leaf following the spin out from the Sprout Group in 2005, and has over two decades of life sciences venture capital investment experience. Hunt has played a significant role in many of the firm’s investments in biopharmaceuticals and in other sectors. He is currently on the board of Iterum Therapeutics and a number of private Biopharmaceutical companies. Hunt is a graduate of The Wharton School (MBA) and Cornell University (BS).
Scott Myers, MBA
Scott Myers is the Chairman of the Board of Harpoon Therapeutics. Mr. Myers most recently served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Nasdaq: AMAG) a biopharmaceutical company prior to its acquisition by Covis Pharma Holdings Sarl in the Fall of 2020. Previously, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rainier Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on metastatic bladder cancer. Rainier's asset, vofatamab, was acquired by Fusion Pharma (Nasdaq: FUSN) in the Spring of 2020. Prior to joining Rainier, Mr. Myers was Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of Cascadian Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CASC) until it was acquired by Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN) in March 2018. He was also CEO of Aerocrine AB (OMX Nasdaq: AERO), a Swedish Medtech company from September 2011 until its acquisition by Circassia, PLC in July of 2015. He has held senior commercial operations, general management and information management positions for UCB SA, a Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company, and Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Myers is chairman of the board at Dynavax (Nasdaq: DVAX) and also Sensorion (Euronext Paris: ALSEN.PA). He is an independent director for Selecta Biosciences (Nasdaq: SELB) and was an Independent Director at Trillium Therapeutics (Nasdaq: TRIL) prior to their acquisition by Pfizer (PFE) in November of 2021. Mr. Myers earned his B.A. in biology from Northwestern University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business (Booth).
Andrew Robbins, MBA
Andrew Robbins is an accomplished executive with extensive commercial, development and strategic leadership experience during a 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on oncology and hematology products. He currently serves as President and CEO of Cogent Biosciences, a public biotechnology company developing real solutions to treat genetically driven diseases. Before Cogent Biosciences, he served at Array Biopharma as the Chief Operating Officer until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2019. Prior to joining Array in 2012, he held management positions at Hospira, Inc., a global pharmaceutical and medical device company. Prior to January 2007, he held commercial and leadership positions within Pfizer's oncology division. Additionally, Mr. Robbins served on the boards of directors of Fate Therapeutics, Cytograft Tissue Engineering and StemCor Systems. Mr. Robbins holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College.
Lauren Silvernail, MBA
Lauren Silvernail has three decades of experience in lead financial and business development roles. She has led and played key roles in a broad range of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, and financings. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development of Evolus, Inc., an aesthetic medicine company, where she led fundraising activities and helped establish the infrastructure for the U.S. commercial launch of the company’s first approved product. Previously, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer at Revance Therapeutics, Inc. and held corporate development roles at ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan and other companies. Lauren is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Nicox S.A., an international ophthalmology company. She earned an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and a B.A. in biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Scientific Advisory Board
Ramy Ibrahim, MD
Dr. Ibrahim serves as Chief Medical Officer and US General Manager at bit.bio. A recognized leader of clinical development in immunotherapy, Dr. Ibrahim previously spent nearly five years at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy building translational, clinical, and regulatory capabilities from the ground up as Chief Medical Officer and remains on the Board of Directors. Dr. Ibrahim helped develop some of the first breakthrough treatments in the field during his tenure at Bristol-Myers Squibb and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. At AstraZeneca, he helped develop durvalumab (anti-PD-L1 antibody) and tremelimumab (anti-CTLA-4 antibody). Previously, at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he served on the Yervoy (ipilimumab) clinical team supporting the program through multiple global launches of the first FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitor. In addition, he played a key role in early development for nivolumab (PD-1), PD-L1 and CD137 antibody. Dr. Ibrahim is a trained medical oncologist, who conducted bench and clinical immunotherapy research at the cancer vaccine branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. He received his MD from the National Cancer Institute at Cairo University, where he also did a fellowship in medical oncology. Dr. Ibrahim also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of bluebird bio and Surface Oncology.
Jeffrey Ravetch, MD, PhD
Dr. Ravetch is the Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Professor and head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology at The Rockefeller University. A pioneering immunology researcher, he won the 2017 Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine for his identification of the mechanism by which the specific structure of antibodies controls immune cell reactivity. Dr. Ravetch received his PhD from Rockefeller and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. He was on the faculty of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a guest investigator in Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology, before being appointed professor at Rockefeller in 1996. Dr. Ravetch has received the 2007 Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute; the Canada Gairdner International Award and the Sanofi–Institut Pasteur Award, and the 2015 Wolf Prize in Medicine.
Charles Rudin, MD, PhD
Dr. Rudin, a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in lung cancer, is chief of the thoracic oncology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also co-chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group thoracic committee, and member of the National Cancer Institute thoracic malignancies steering committee. Dr. Rudin directs a broad research program of therapeutic research, including laboratory-based investigations to identify and test novel treatment approaches to small cell and non-small cell lung cancers. Some of these strategies include turning back on genes silenced in cancer, re-activating cancer cell death pathways and treating lung cancer with a cancer-specific virus. Dr. Rudin received his MD from the University of Chicago, and did his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago.
Eric Small, MD
Dr. Small is a professor of medicine and urology, and chief of the department of medicine/division of hematology/oncology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is co-director of the urologic cancer service and director of urologic oncology research. His patient care and research focus is prostate cancer, immunotherapy and the mechanisms of resistance to standard therapies. He is a member of the Therapy Consortium of The Prostate Cancer Foundation, the largest private source of prostate cancer research funding, and on the board of directors of the American Prostate Cancer Foundation. He chairs the Prostate Cancer Correlative Sciences Working Group of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Cooperative Oncology Group. Dr. Small earned a bachelor's degree at Stanford University and a medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors. While in medical school, he completed a fellowship in pathology. He completed post-graduate residency training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the UCSF Cancer Research Institute.
Our Partners
Harpoon has an agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche for the supply of atezolizumab. Under this agreement, Harpoon is the sponsor of the trial, and Roche supplies atezolizumab for Harpoon’s ongoing Phase 1/2 trial of HPN328. Additionally, Harpoon and AbbVie are collaborating under a discovery collaboration for up to six targets, leveraging Harpoon’s TriTAC and ProTriTAC platforms to produce novel T cell engagers for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.