Nektar Therapeutics

American healthcare company

Nektar Therapeutics

Formerly| Inhale Therapeutic Systems, Inc.
Company type| Public

Traded as

* Nasdaq: NKTR

Industry| Biopharmaceuticals
Founded| 1990; 35 years ago (1990)
Headquarters| San Francisco, California, U.S.
Products|

* Exubera
* Movantik

Revenue| US$90.1million (2023)[1]

Number of employees

| 137 (2024)
Website| nektar.com

Nektar Therapeutics is an American biopharmaceutical company. The company was founded in 1990 and is based in San Francisco, California.[2] The company develops new drug candidates by applying its proprietary PEGylation and advanced polymer conjugate technologies to modify chemical structure of substances,[3] which improves drug characteristics like retention and solubility.[4] It is a technology supplier to a number of pharmaceutical companies including Affymax, Amgen, Merck, Pfizer and UCB Pharma, etc.[2] The company developed the world's first inhalable non-injectable insulin, Exubera, which was awarded as the bronze award by Wall Street Journal for its technological breakthrough.[5]

## Background

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The company is engaged in developing a proprietary pipeline of drug candidates for several therapeutic areas including oncology, pain, anti-infectives, anti-viral and immunology.[2] The company's research and development involve in small molecule and biologic drug candidates. Its drug candidate base consists of naloxegol (Movantik), a Phase III oral opioid antagonist, etirinotecan pegol, a topoisomerase inhibitor under Phase III clinical study as of 2012, NKTR 061, NKTR-181, NKTR-214, etc.[6]

In 2013, the company was assigned a patent which was developed by the company and other four co-inventors.[7] The products of the company is served as a supplement to improve the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, half-life, bioavailability and other areas of drugs for the patients worldwide.[8] As of March 2014, the company had a market capitalization of $1.7 billion with an enterprise value of $1.67 billion.[1]

As of December 2024, at a stock price-per-share of roughly $1, the market cap is roughly $171 million.[9] Nektar underwent periods of downsizing after unsuccessful partnerships were ended with Eli Lilly in 2023 and Bristol Myers Squibb in 2022, resulting in layoffs of most company employees.[4]

### Pipeline

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Etirinotecan pegol was in the phase III BEACON trial as well as in the I-SPY2 adaptive clinical trial for breast cancer in 2016.[10] The European Medicines Agency refused a marketing authorisation in 2017.[11]

Bempegaldesleukin (NKTR-214) is a CD122-biased immune-stimulatory cytokine,[12] Phase I results were announced in November 2016.[13] It is now in a phase 2 trial in combination with nivolumab for various advanced cancers.[14]

In 2023 Nektar's partnership with Eli Lilly in development of "rezpeg" was ended. Eli Lilly claimed the drug lacked suitable efficacy, while Nektar responded that Eli Lilly had botched the analysis.[4]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Nektar Therapeutics".
2. ^ a b c "BDR: Summary for Nektar Therapeutics, Inc.- Yahoo! Finance". Finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2014-03-17.
3. ^ "Nextar Therapeutics Inc. brief introduction NASDAQ". Nasdaq.com. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
4. ^ a b c Kansteiner, Fraiser (2024-11-04). "Nektar extends cash runway with $90M manufacturing plant sale". www.fiercepharma.com. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
5. ^ Totty, Michael (2006-09-11). "The Winners Are..." Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
6. ^ "NKTR reuter.com". Reuters.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-16. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
7. ^ "Nektar Therapeutics : U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in Alabama (Feb. 8)". 4-traders.com. 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
8. ^ "Nextar Marketwatch Quote Summary". Marketwatch.com. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
9. ^ "Nektar Therapeutics Market Cap 2010-2024 | NKTR". www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
10. ^ Kuznar, Wayne (28 June 2016). "Novel Agents are Targeting Drivers of TNBC: Several drug candidates in I-SPY2 have 'graduated' to later-phase studies". Medpage Today. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
11. ^ "Onzeald". European Medicines Agency. 2017-11-10.
12. ^ "Nektar and MD Anderson Cancer Center Announce Phase 1/2 Clinical Research Collaboration for NKTR-214, a CD122-Biased Immuno-Stimulatory Cytokine". Nektar Therapeutics. June 2, 2015. Archived from the original on 19 December 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
13. ^ Martins, Ines (17 November 2016). "Immunotherapy, NKTR-214, Shows Activity Against Solid Tumors in Study". Retrieved 2020-11-12.
14. ^ Inman, Silas (12 November 2017). "NKTR-214/Nivolumab Combination Shows Promise in Early Study". OncLive. Retrieved 12 November 2020.

## External links

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* Official website
* Business data for Nektar Therapeutics:

* Google
* Reuters
* SEC filings
* Yahoo!

Authority control databases |

* ISNI

|