Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Nektar Therapeutics, Inc. (“Nektar” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: NKTR) and certain of its officers.
NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Nektar Therapeutics, Inc. (“Nektar” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: NKTR) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Northern District of California, and index under 18-cv-06607, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise acquired shares of Nektar securities between November 11, 2017 through October 2, 2018, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.
If you are a shareholder who purchased Nektar securities between November 11, 2017, and October 2, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until December 31, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
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Nektar is a research-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops innovative medicines in areas of high unmet medical need. Nektar’s research and development pipeline of new investigational drugs include treatments for cancer, autoimmune disease, and chronic pain. Nektar purports to leverage its proprietary and proven chemistry platform to discover and design new drug candidates. These drug candidates utilize the Company’s advanced polymer conjugate technology platforms, which are designed to enable the development of new molecular entities that target known mechanisms of action.
NKTR-214, is the Company’s lead immune-oncology (“I-O”) candidate, is a biologic with biased signaling through one of the IL-2 receptor subunits (CD 122) that can stimulate proliferation and growth of tumor-killing immune cells in the tumor microenvironment and increase expression of PD-1 on these immune cells.
Throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) prior studies which attempted to pegylate IL-2 failed; (ii) NKTR-214’s extended half-life was unlikely to result in efficacy and created additional high-dosing safety concerns; (iii) NKTR-214 was less effective than IL-2 alone; (iv) the combination of NKTR-214 with nivolumab has not yet demonstrated significant positive results; and (v) as a result, Nektar’s public statements as set forth above were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On October 1, 2018, Plainview LLC (“Plainview”) published a report entitled “NKTR-214: Pegging the Value at Zero”. The report addressed the efficacy of Nektar’s lead clinical-stage drug NKTR-214, which the Company has touted as “a promising treatment for cancer, particularly in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.” The Plainview report stated that “Nektar hypothesized that IL-2 [a naturally occurring cytokine] could be improved by adding polyethylene glycol molecules to it (pegylating it) to extend the half-life and block interaction with” a specific receptor, but that "[u]nfortunately, the anticipated benefits did not materialize and pegylation has proved to be a drag on efficacy.” The Plainview report asserted that the core concept of Nektar’s plan to develop NKTR-214 into “a new universal cancer treatment” “has never worked in practice”, and further asserted that Nektar’s decision to only disclose certain trial results represented “an unprecedented level of data opacity.”
Following the publication of the Plainview report, Nektar’s stock price fell $5.63 per share, or 9.24%, over the following two trading sessions, closing at $55.33 per share on October 2, 2018.
The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
888-476-6529 ext. 9980
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Company Codes: NASDAQ-NMS:NKTR
