Tuesday, April 5, 2022

After A High-Profile Failure In Melanoma, Nektar Therapeutics' Value Shifts To Its Early-Stage Pipeline

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) is now facing the unenviable challenge of picking up the pieces and rebuilding investor confidence in the company and the stock after the disappointing failure of the company’s pivotal combo study in melanoma. Although there are still additional studies of bempegaldesleukin (or “bempeg”) that have yet to read out, it seems unlikely that there will be winners here, leaving Nektar as a more development-stage biotech with three early-stage lead compounds.

I was completely wrong about the likelihood of bempeg succeeding in melanoma, and that was what I believed to be the program with the highest likelihood of success given the established use of IL-2 as a last-ditch therapy. I can’t completely write-off the remaining bempeg studies, but I think it would be highly surprising if any of them showed efficacy to warrant an NDA submission, and the three remaining lead compounds (NKTR-358, NKTR-255, and NKTR-262) are too early in their development to support a strong share price today.

 

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After A High-Profile Failure In Melanoma, Nektar Therapeutics' Value Shifts To Its Early-Stage Pipeline

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