Biotech Values

[ghmm]

NKTR / IL2

I would guess only a small part of current valuation is 214. The bulk being in its producing (and near term potential) royalties and some in its pain program.

IL2 is actually a fairly old approach in Melanoma its had very good success the problem is its so poorly tolerated it must be done in a specialized center and most patients can't tolerate many rounds of treatment. Nektar is going to explore a few different tumor types as single agent then try to combine with PD1/Checkpoint.

Here is a link to a recent paper on 214
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/22/3/680.long

The bibliography may have some good references if your interested in IL2 as a target in general. I generally try a pubmed search when I am curious about how well studied a target is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed sorry not specific references.

Nektar has 2 other programs a bit earlier too (IL5 and IDO). I asked ohad on his blog about his thoughts on 214 and he mentioned Roche is targeting IL2 too (I am not familiar with their program)