Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) Accused of Misrepresenting the Viability of its Drug NKTR-214
According to the complaint against the company’s officers and directors for alleged breaches of their fiduciary duties, unjust enrichment, waste of corporate assets, and violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, between November 11, 2017 and the present, Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) 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 just $21.59.