Several sources are speculating that the potential buyer could be Eli Lilly, despite the breakdown of the pharma’s partnership with Nektar over atopic dermatitis therapy rezpeg.
Shares of Nektar Therapeutics jumped as much as 12% on Friday after rumors of a potential acquisition swirled on social media, according to the Betaville blog.
Nektar was still rising in premarket trading Monday. The biotech was trading at $62.49, up around 8% from its Friday closing price of $54.96.
Citing the deal-focused Betaville, many other sources speculated that the potential buyer could be Eli Lilly. Nektar and Lilly were once working together on the biotech’s T cell stimulator rezpegaldesleukin, also known as rezpeg, currently being tested for atopic dermatitis, alopecia areata and type 1 diabetes. The companies partnered in July 2017, a $150 million upfront payment from the pharma—alongside the promise of up to $250 million in milestones—giving it co-development and co-commercialization rights to the asset.
Things between the partners soon turned sour. In September 2022, Lilly presented Phase Ib data for rezpeg, showing that while the drug demonstrated dose-dependent improvements in disease burden, its efficacy ultimately fell short of statistical significance. A few months later, in April 2023, Lilly backed out of the pact and returned rezpeg’s rights to Nektar.
Then, in August that year, Nektar alleged that Lilly had miscalculated rezpeg’s efficacy. After gaining access to raw data files, Nektar discovered that the drug was much more effective than what Lilly’s analysis had found—enough to satisfy statistical significance. Nektar’s reanalysis also found miscalculations by Lilly in a separate Phase Ib study, revealing a stronger treatment effect on psoriasis severity.
Nektar sued Lilly a few days later, accusing the pharma of “botching” the data analysis of rezpeg, in turn delaying “development and commencement of additional trials.” Nektar at the time also said that Lilly was “fabricating excuses for why the drug was not likely to be a commercial success.” The lawsuit continues to make its way through the U.S. District Court of San Francisco as of June 12.
Designed to be given via a subcutaneous injection, rezpeg targets receptors found on regulatory T cells, in turn eliciting the multiplication of these cells. This mechanism helps rezpeg rectify the immune dysregulation that drives certain diseases such as eczema. In June this year, Nektar noted that rezpeg treatment resulted in a 61% improvement in Eczema Area and Severity Index scores, as compared with 31% in placebo comparitors.
The biotech at the time saw this readout as a mid-stage victory for rezpeg, with CEO Howard Robin calling the data “compelling.” Analysts were not as effusive, however, with William Blair saying that rezpeg’s point of differentiation “remains unclear” against other atopic dermatitis treatments. We believe there is an absence of clear differentiation in the highly competitive atopic dermatitis field,” the firm said.
