Innate Pharma Advances Lacutamab to Phase 3 After Sobi Partnership, Appoints Jensen as CMO

Partnership financing is now directly underwriting late-stage regulatory execution at Innate Pharma, with the Sobi deal unlocking a USD 75 million upfront payment that the company intends to deploy toward the TELLOMAK-3 confirmatory Phase 3 study and a planned accelerated approval filing for lacutamab in Sézary syndrome.

The TELLOMAK-3 initiation is contingent on closing of the Sobi transaction, which remains subject to antitrust clearance. Once closed, Innate will run the confirmatory trial in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, with the accelerated approval filing to health authorities anchored to existing TELLOMAK Phase 2 data. The USD 75 million upfront, combined with near-term development milestones tied to Sézary syndrome, is projected to extend the company's cash runway through Q3 2027, the window within which the filing is expected to land. Innate has noted it continues to explore additional financing to support broader strategic priorities beyond that horizon.

For clinical operations and regulatory affairs teams tracking rare disease filing models, the structure here is instructive: partnership proceeds are explicitly sequenced against a regulatory submission timeline, with milestone payments linked to indication-specific progress rather than broad development spend. That alignment between deal economics and filing readiness is increasingly common among clinical-stage rare disease developers managing constrained runways.

Leadership continuity through this execution phase is addressed by the appointment of Markus Jensen as Chief Medical Officer, effective September 1, 2026, succeeding Sonia Quaratino. Jensen joined Innate in 2024 as head of clinical pharmacology and has served as global clinical lead across key programs including IPH4502. He holds a medical degree from the University of Cologne and carries dual board certification in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology from Ärztekammer Nordrhein. His prior 16-year tenure at Bayer concentrated on oncology and clinical development, providing direct relevance to the late-stage program he now inherits.

Quaratino, in stepping down, leaves a pipeline that has completed Phase 1 enrollment for IPH4502 and advanced lacutamab to the threshold of confirmatory study. Jensen's existing familiarity with both programs reduces transition risk at a point where regulatory timelines leave limited margin for operational disruption.

Alongside TELLOMAK-3, Innate has flagged anticipated clinical results for IPH4502 and monalizumab as additional 2026 milestones, positioning the accelerated approval filing as the first of three material regulatory and clinical readouts expected before year-end.

The accelerated approval filing timeline for lacutamab in Sézary syndrome now depends on antitrust clearance for the Sobi transaction closing on schedule.

Source: Innate Pharma via press release, August 9, 2026.