Insider Activity to Watch: Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR)

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) insider has recently participated in insider trading activity. President & CEO, ROBIN HOWARD W sold 66,666 shares for $ 765,992 via one transaction Feb 10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,000 shares in total, priced at $ 115400 as of Tuesday. Another notable insider trading was done by the same insider on Jan 19. ROBIN HOWARD W sold 66,667 shares at an average price of $ 14.12 for a total of $ 941,338. Moreover, Lingnau Lutz carried out a sale of 15,000 shares at $ 14.51 each on Jan 20. The transaction amounted to $ 217,650. SVP & General Counsel Labrucherie Gil M sold 11,667 shares for $ 164,738 through one transaction Jan 19. Following this sale, this insider’s stake in the company comprises 5,251 shares, priced at $ 60596.54 as of Tuesday.

The stock has experienced a total of 13 insider trades in the past three months. These trades include 13 sell activities and zero buy trades. Furthermore, over the past 12 months, the stock was traded 33 times by insiders. In 33 of these trades, the insider was a seller while an employee of the company was the buyer in just zero instances.

Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) on February 1, 2016 announced the publication in Clinical Cancer Research of pre-clinical findings for NKTR-214. The paper, titled “NKTR-214, an Engineered Cytokine with Biased IL2 Receptor Binding, Increased Tumor Exposure, and Marked Efficacy in Mouse Tumor Models,” (Charych et al., Clin Cancer Res, doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-15-1631) documents a broad set of pre-clinical data supporting the clinical advancement of NKTR-214.  Among the findings reported, treatment with NKTR-214 led to durable and specific anti-tumor immunity in multiple syngeneic mouse models both as a single agent and as combination therapy with checkpoint inhibitors. In addition, treatment with single-agent NKTR-214 in tumor-bearing mice resulted in a controlled, sustained, and biased T-cell activation leading to a 450:1 mean ratio of CD8-positive effector T cells to T-regulatory cells in the tumor microenvironment, while maintaining more balanced ratios in non-tumor tissues and circulation.

“NKTR-214 allows us to capture and harness the power of the IL-2 biological pathway, which is known to promote T cell growth, to stimulate the body’s own immune system to target and fight cancer. The design of NKTR-214 gives it a combination of biophysical, biochemical, and pharmacological properties that translate into a desirable anti-tumor immune profile,” said Stephen Doberstein, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Nektar Therapeutics.

The newly published data documented in the paper also support the favorable safety profile of NKTR-214.  The compound was well-tolerated in rodents and in non-human primates (NHPs). Importantly, these pre-clinical safety studies showed that NKTR-214 did not lead to hypotension or vascular leak syndrome at predicted clinical therapeutic doses.