Takeda Unit Wins Fraud Suit Against Cancer Immunotherapy Company

Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. didn’t breach its noncompete agreement with a business it spun off, or steal the new company’s immunotherapy technology, but it did defraud Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. into investing as part of the spinoff, a Delaware judge ruled Friday.

The Chancery Court lawsuit stemmed from the transactions that created Maverick Therapeutics Inc. and partnered it with Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Takeda subsidiary. Maverick was formed to capitalize on novel technology developed by Harpoon with the potential to solve the problem of anti-cancer immunotherapies attacking healthy cells instead of just tumors.

Such overzealous immunotherapies, known as “inherently active” therapies, can ...