Piper Jaffray analyst Tyler Van Buren reiterates an Overweight rating and $100 price target on Nektar, and believes shares should be up significantly on Monday following updated data from the bempegaldesleukin + nivo PIVOT-02 melanoma cohort. The increase in complete response rate from 24% to 34% at just beyond 12 months is more than the analyst and investors were anticipating and "the waterfall plot is like nothing [he has] ever seen in solid tumors." Ultimately, Van Buren believes the high quality of responses and the ability to maintain patients on therapy is contributing to robust durability, which increases his confidence in the ultimate outcome of the Phase III trial which will have a final mPFS evaluation around Q3 of 2020.

Biolojic Design announced that Nektar exercised its license option to develop a program resulting from the companies' research collaboration initiated in 2021. The research collaboration was established to design and test agonistic antibodies targeting tumor necrosis factor receptor type II, a novel, biologically-validated disease target implicated in a wide range of autoimmune diseases that has been difficult to drug with conventional medicines. The antibody program selected for development is designed to modulate the TNFR2 pathway in order to agonize - or activate - T regulatory cells and other anti-inflammatory cell populations, making this a promising approach to stimulating the immune system in ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, vitiligo, and other autoimmune disease states. Under the 2021 research agreement, Nektar has tested antibodies computationally designed by Biolojic Design to precisely agonize the TNFR2 receptor. Following successful preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies, Nektar decided to exercise the license option and has been advancing the program through IND enabling studies since late December, 2023. If the NKTR-0165 candidate proceeds through clinical development, Biolojic Design is entitled to development milestones and sales royalties.