Don’t know if anyone has noticed NKTR’s almost $10 move since my 7/31 post. Not a bad repair job so far.
Hope this means good news is coming.
Rob
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I held onto NKTR, even as it dropped. I know Saul, and others, sold off as the stock dropped, but I am discounting the markets evaluation.
The PIVOT melanoma trial data should start coming out between now and November.
Reading through the call-transcript, it seems to be all good news with what they will talk about.
It sounds like they will be submitting data as it comes out. There’s a lot of talk of non-small-cell lung cancer, bladder, and melanoma.
Someone asked a question about 181, and I thought the answer was a bit ambivalent:
“I strongly believe that there is a great opportunity for Nektar-181 as a novel and novel analgesic. We will see how things evolve over time. I agree with you it’s a very confused landscape and you see issues coming up all the time, but that’s exactly what we’re trying to solve. We’re trying to solve the very issues that you are identifying as problematic. So, let’s see how Nektar-181 progresses and again I believe that it will do a lot of good for dealing with the opioid crisis in the U.S.”
And they are looking at creating a wholly owned subsidiary to market 181:
“Our current focus is on establishing a separate subsidiary with one or more commercial or capital partners to launch this important molecule. We believe this option will allow Nektar to focus our efforts and resources on the development of Nektar’s immuno-oncology and immunology pipeline”
I’m not a financial professional, but I’m curious as to why they would go to the trouble to do that. Are they distancing themselves from 181? Maybe it’s not as promising as anticipated?
David
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“Our current focus is on establishing a separate subsidiary with one or more commercial or capital partners to launch this important molecule. We believe this option will allow Nektar to focus our efforts and resources on the development of Nektar’s immuno-oncology and immunology pipeline”
I’m not a financial professional, but I’m curious as to why they would go to the trouble to do that. Are they distancing themselves from 181?
Hi David,
I’m not an expert on this, but I think that they were very clear in what they said. They see themselves as an immuno-oncology and immunology company with many coming products. They see 181 and opioids as a one of a kind that they will no longer be working on. They don’t want to be distracted by marketing it, and they don’t want headlines and interest about Nectar to be about 181, its success, or failure, or side-effects, or problems, etc. It makes good sense to me.
Saul
11 Likes
“Our current focus is on establishing a separate subsidiary with one or more commercial or capital partners to launch this important molecule. We believe this option will allow Nektar to focus our efforts and resources on the development of Nektar’s immuno-oncology and immunology pipeline”
I’m not a financial professional, but I’m curious as to why they would go to the trouble to do that. Are they distancing themselves from 181? Maybe it’s not as promising as anticipated?"
My take on this is that splitting out NKTR-181 would attract investors to a pure non-addicting opioid play. Thus the sum of the parts being more valuable than 181 buried in with the rest NKTRs cancer drugs. This is especially since the last read out of the cancer drugs was not well received and would be enhanced by finding a great partner for 181. I believe that an announcement of such a split would be received favorably. Another possible positive catalyst.
Rob
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A few months ago, I expressed concern about NKTR - but I did state on this board that I’d give it a year to prove itself. I haven’t sold any yet - and I’m sticking to my guns.
If there are any serious warning signs, I don’t see them at this point.
…Marc
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I have no inside information other than being a prescribing physician in a state hit hard by the opioid crisis. It doesn’t matter if a drug is an opioid, a stimulant for ADHD or testosterone; if it is a controlled substance, state medical boards are looking very closely at prescribing practices and are coming after physicians who are deemed to be over prescribers. 181 will be a controlled substance, which means cracking the market and getting prescribers to write it in any volume is going to be an uphill battle. I presume that NKTR recognized this, so spinning off 181 to a partner mitigates the financial burden of shepherding the drug through the FDA approval process as well as the expense of launching a new drug. As a shareholder, I am pleased that NKTR has taken this step. I think it will help the bottom line, as well as remove any potential taint when 181 doesn’t turn out to be a blockbuster.
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