Still More Chaos At Nektar, But There's Value In The Pipeline

Nektar (NKTR) shares have remained volatile, with new turbulence tied to the rejection and abandonment of pain drug NKTR-181, another restructuring to the Bristol-Myers (BMY) partnership, and ongoing uncertainty about the clinical and commercial profile of its key asset bempegaldesleukin (“bempeg”). While the shares are up more than 10% since my last update, a little worse than the return of the two largest biotech ETFs, the shares had been substantially higher less than a week ago – after the release of slides ahead of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference and the unsuccessful FDA AdCom meeting on NKTR-181.

I think there are valid questions about management here, and it’s hard to feel good about any investment when you’re not really confident about management, but I believe the potential of bempeg in melanoma supports the valuation and I do still see upside from here, though it’s far from what I’d call a high-confidence pick.

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Still More Chaos At Nektar, But There's Value In The Pipeline