Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) Accused of Misrepresenting the Viability of its Drug NKTR-214
According to the complaint, Nektar touted to investors that NKTR-214 was a promising new universal cancer treatment drug. Nektar further asserted that it could improve the drug by adding polyethylene glycol molecules to IL-2, a process known as “pegylating,” to extend the half-life and reduce side effects. To investors’ surprise, on October 1, 2018, a report published by Plainview LLC claimed that NKTR-214 did not live up to Nektar’s claims and expectations for the drug’s safety and efficacy. The report revealed that Nektar had withheld 69% of response rates on dosed patients in its PIVOT study “in an unprecedented level of data opacity.” In addition, the report alleged that pegylation impaired the efficacy of NKTR-214, rendering it “completely useless for treating cancer.” On this news, Nektar’s stock price fell over 9% over the following two trading sessions to close at $55.33 on October 2, 2018, and continues to decline, closing today at around just $21.50.
