Nek­tar takes the spot­light at SITC tout­ing some promis­ing ear­ly da­ta for hard-to-treat can­cers

WASH­ING­TON, DC — One of Nek­tar Ther­a­peu­tics’ top can­cer drugs gained the spot­light at the So­ci­ety for Im­munother­a­py of Can­cer meet­ing over the week­end with the first cut of some promis­ing re­sponse rates in a range of tu­mor types. And the pub­lic biotech $NK­TR be­lieves the re­sults point them to a short path at the FDA that could lead to the drug’s first, fast ap­proval.

The drug is NK­TR-214, an IL-2 im­muno-on­col­o­gy ther­a­py — built from the ground up by the biotech — which is de­signed to bind to the CD122 re­cep­tor on the sur­face of CD-8 and CD-4 pos­i­tive im­mune cells to whip up an at­tack on var­i­ous can­cers. Nek­tar struck a 50/50 deal with Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb $BMY to use their drug in com­bi­na­tion with Op­di­vo (nivolum­ab), match­ing a ther­a­py aimed at dri­ving an im­mune re­sponse with a pop­u­lar check­point block­buster that helps take the brakes off the as­sault.

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