, Columnist
Nektar's 40% Plunge Is Compounded By Risky Cancer-Drug Bet
Using tiny data sets and competitive pressure to justify drug-development decisions is a slippery slope in a research area that is still in its infancy.
Where caution may be warranted, Nektar and Bristol are moving full-steam ahead.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Don't say I didn’t warn you.
Shares of Nektar Therapeutics Inc. plunged some 40 percent Monday morning after a disappointing weekend data update on a combination trial of its lead medicine with Bristol-Myers Squibb & Co.’s immune-boosting cancer drug Opdivo. This is just the latest in a series of roadbumps for such combo cancer treatments, which, as I have pointed out, offer as much risk and uncertainty at this stage as they do promise.