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Nektar Restructuring Ends Bempeg Ambitions, Cuts Staff By 70%

 
• By Joseph Haas

Following termination of its immuno-oncology partnership with Bristol, Nektar is paring operations, closing its India site and focusing on mid-stage NKTR-358, partnered with Lilly, and NKTR-255.

Restructure
Nektar undertakes a significant restructuring it alluded to a month earlier • Source: Alamy

Nektar Therapeutics acknowledged that changes were coming when discussing the failure of its lead candidate bempegaldesleukin (bempeg) in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb Company’s Opdivo (nivolumab) in the Phase III PIVOT IO-001 study in March, and on 25 April the firm followed up with a major restructuring that will reduce headcount by 70% and place primary focus on mid-stage candidates NKTR-358 and NKTR-255.

While reporting the failure of the bempeg/Opdivo combination – the centerpiece of a 2018 collaboration with BMS that brought Nektar $1.85bn in upfront cash and equity investment – in melanoma on 14 March, Nektar CEO Howard Robin said strategic and structural changes “that will be substantial and will be difficult to take” were coming for his firm. (Also see "Bristol Goes In Big On New Valentine Nektar" - Scrip, 14 February, 2018

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