Nektar Therapeutics at Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Absolutely. So let's talk about particularly where we're at. The center of gravity here is REZPEG. Maybe Jay-Z, what is REZPEG? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JUNE 10, 2024 / 6:00PM, NKTR.OQ - Nektar Therapeutics at Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And what is the history of the clinical development path? What do we know? And just tell us a little bit about this journey. Because it's actually got an interesting development stewardship history. Went with Lilly. We'll get into that a little bit, just because I think it's helpful context to think about now in your hands, what you're doing with it. But just remind us from the outset, what's the profile? What's the data?

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Yeah, I think often about immunology-directed assets. The construct is that there's a pipeline within the product. And so the extensive number of indications that were being prosecuted earlier totally makes sense. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JUNE 10, 2024 / 6:00PM, NKTR.OQ - Nektar Therapeutics at Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference I always think of the skin indications as being more competitive from the efficacy standpoint. When you hear someone say, I say EASI or [PASI] score, you're expecting a number that kind of has to start at least with a five handle on it and go higher, right? Whereas if someone says, oh, we're going after UC and Crohn's and someone says that they did 20% response, went into induction remission, it's high fives all around, which actually sort of speaks to how complex those patients and the diseases are, et cetera. So AD is pretty competitive, right? We have a dominant franchise product that is the Golden Goose there. Where do you envision the white space or the opportunity set? Because one of the other wonderful things about the immunology market is that we're still not great at picking who gets what and patients try stuff. And the phrase cycling on and off therapies means multiple players get to play, which is theoretically where I think REZPEG could come in. But frame for me what the mapping out of where you see this could go if things continue to go well.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I want to ask a little bit more about the Phase 2b design, because you have multiple doses and cohorts of patients, but you did mention something earlier that I'm hoping to get a little bit better biological understanding, and that is that durability of the response was sustained. What's going on there? And how are you navigating that information into, it's like, okay, what should the periodicity of dosing be?

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And remind me, this is IV that we're testing at this stage or sub-Q?

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Okay. And then just in terms of thinking about the volume of the inject data across the doses, what are we talking here? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JUNE 10, 2024 / 6:00PM, NKTR.OQ - Nektar Therapeutics at Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : As we think about, we're already Phase 2b here, so we have to have an eye and a lens towards the commercial profile and testing.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : A little bit about the history of your experiences in partnerships with big pharma, obviously with Bristol on the oncology side, and then with Lilly there. At the time that you're kind of dating, there's a lot of engagement and opportunity and optimism. There's opportunities for you to sort of see how the sausage gets made once you're sort of in some of those special war rooms, et cetera. What does that make you think about with REZPEG now? Where are you? Maybe this is one for you, Jen, on the strategy side about, is there a critical juncture at which you'd be willing to put yourself out there again, so to speak, and that you would need the capabilities of one of these larger, oh yeah, we've got the commercial regulatory people and well-oiled and feet on the ground, et cetera, and all that.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I think as we look at REZPEG and we're going into this Phase 2b, we have the resources and the capital to fund the Phase 2b in both atopic dermatitis as well as alopecia. So I think it's very important for us to get to that data. We have optionality once we get there to consider the path forward for Phase 3 development and approval. So we have been approached about the asset. I think right now we're fully committed to funding it through the Phase 2b data points, and then we can consider sort of the path forward for that. So I think as a smaller company, you have to consider that optionality for sure. Okay, no, and that's very helpful because, again, going back to this pipeline within a product, remind me what happened to the lupus effort. I remember years back that that was doing KOL calls where people were actually pretty jazzed and did some of the initial data, but that's obviously a tremendously difficult disease area of patient selection, identification, the chronology, et cetera. So any prospects or learnings from lupus, and would you ever go back there, and then we will turn to alopecia, but I just want to touch upon lupus. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JUNE 10, 2024 / 6:00PM, NKTR.OQ - Nektar Therapeutics at Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : So that makes sense. So alopecia areata, tell us a bit about that data so that we have some context.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : There are some numbers out there that give us some sort of benchmarks for everybody wants to know, is this good? Is this, you know, what should we expect from an efficacy standpoint? And then just put on the ecosystem some ranges of numbers of this would be a positive signal for you to continue to move further into development.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And remind, for the listeners here, maybe just exactly what those thresholds were in the range of, in terms of for the alopecia areata, what is the particular endpoint that matters and just a range of numbers that would work there.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And whenever we think about JAK inhibitors, we often think about pretty rapid onset of some sort of clinical benefit or symptomatology, et cetera. What are the kinetics that you think make sense as we think about REZPEG from all the work that you've done and other indications so far? What do you think?

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And with AD, I think when we talk to doctors and scientists, they look at some of the metrics. And then when you look at more research that's done amongst patients, you get much more of a characterization of what is the bothersome symptom that they care about. And often it's itch, right, primarily. Can you comment about what some of the patient benefit clinical features that appear to be part of the potential profile?

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Right. So we tend to have a vicious cycle with these patients, and that's what they end up really caring about, especially if you're not a first-line agent. It's like, okay, I'm one of the 8% or 9% who are getting their itch score, and I'm not getting my itch score, my symptoms are not good, and I may dock. And so I think that there's an opportunity in subsequent lines with products that address specific symptomatology. So let's close out here with a discussion about sort of strategy resources. Jennifer, you did a financing recently. Talk to us about how that supports your plan up until a certain time point. I think we're actually on a pretty good runway now.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : First-half '25.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : So that cash runway that you project includes investment in the TNFR2.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I'm going to go a little bit more beyond the preclinical data because that's also translating into the clinic is more so.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And I think you have one other preclinical program, PEG-CSF1.

Question: Chris Shibutani - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Okay, so I think actually this was a really timely conversation because it feels as if a lot more has become settled and a lot more of the arrows are pointing in a very clear forward direction. You have assets in the clinic. We have timelines for data. There's money in the bank. There's plan. There's optionality. So I really appreciate this opportunity to have this conversation. I think hopefully it'll be a really helpful update for the investor community to turn some attention here and to keep an eye on you guys. Yeah. Appreciate you being here.