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[DewDiligence]

NKTR, Baxter to Develop New PEGylated Therapeutics for Hemophilia

[This PR doesn’t say which clotting factors for hemophilia the companies will be developing, but there aren’t that many of them. The companies have a three-year-old collaboration for a variant of FVIII, so the new collaboration is presumably for variants of FIX, FVIIa, or both. Several companies are working on either variants of these clotting factors or new methods to produce the factors themselves; the latter group includes GTCB in two separate collaborations.]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071220/aqth073.html

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Thursday December 20, 7:00 am ET

Companies Build on Existing Collaboration For Long Acting Blood Clotting Factors For Hemophilia

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR ) today announced a new agreement with subsidiaries of Baxter International Inc. to develop new PEGylated therapeutics for hemophilia. The program will begin preclinical development in 2008.

This is the second agreement between Nektar and Baxter to work together on innovative therapeutics for hemophilia patients. The two companies announced their initial agreement in September of 2005 to develop PEGylated therapeutic forms of clotting proteins to treat hemophilia A [i.e. a FVIII variant].

"We are pleased to expand our partnership with Nektar," said Hartmut J. Ehrlich, M.D., vice president of global research and development for Baxter's BioScience business. "Partnering with world-class science and technology companies is one of the ways Baxter continues to advance our product development."

Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Nektar will receive up to $44 million in upfront and milestone payments, funding of research and development, and manufacturing revenues during research, clinical development, and commercialization. Nektar will also receive royalties on end product sales.

"We're pleased to work on innovative PEGylated therapeutics with Baxter, an exceptional partner and a leader in the hemophilia space," said Hoyoung Huh, M.D., Ph.D., Nektar Chief Operating Officer and Head of the PEGylation Business Unit. "This agreement highlights our commitment to collaborate with market leaders such as Baxter in the development of groundbreaking therapeutics."

Baxter will be responsible for the development and commercialization of the product and Nektar will be responsible for the technology development used in the product including the provision of clinical and commercial PEG reagents. Nektar PEGylation technology has already been successfully applied to eight marketed products in the United States and Europe.

About Nektar Advanced PEGylation Technology

Nektar Advanced PEGylation has the potential to improve the safety and efficacy of therapeutic agents by increasing drug circulation time in the bloodstream, decreasing immunogenicity and dosing frequency, increasing bioavailability and improving drug solubility and stability. It is based on the use of non-toxic polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymers, which can be attached to most major drug classes, including proteins, peptides, antibody fragments, small molecules, and other drugs and is used in eight marketed products in the U.S. and Europe today.

About Nektar

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with a mission to develop and enable differentiated therapeutics with its industry-leading pulmonary and PEGylation technology platforms. Nektar pulmonary and PEGylation technology, expertise, manufacturing capabilities and know-how have enabled ten approved products for partners, which include the world's leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Nektar also develops its own products by applying its pulmonary and PEGylation technology platforms to existing medicines with the objective to enhance performance, such as improving efficacy, safety and compliance.
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