Agreements

Date: 2017-05-22

Type of information: Research agreement

Compound: NKTR-214, with five oncology compounds from Takeda's cancer portfolio

Company: Nektar Therapeutics (USA - CA) Takeda Pharmaceutical (Japan)

Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology

Type agreement: R&D - research

Action mechanism: immunotherapy product. NKTR-214 is an investigational immuno-stimulatory therapy designed to expand specific cancer-fighting CD8+ effector T cells and natural killer (NK) cells directly in the tumor micro-environment and increase expression of PD-1 on these immune cells. NKTR-214 targets CD122 specific receptors found on the surface of these cancer-fighting immune cells in order to stimulate their proliferation. In clinical and preclinical studies, treatment with NKTR-214 resulted in expansion of these cells and mobilization into the tumor micro-environment.1,2,3 NKTR-214 has an antibody-like dosing regimen similar to the existing checkpoint inhibitor class of approved medicines.

Disease: lymphoma, melanoma, colorectal cancer

Details:

• • On May 22, 2017, Nektar Therapeutics announced that Takeda Pharmaceutical and Nektar have entered into a research collaboration to explore the combination of Nektar's lead immuno-oncology candidate, the CD122-biased agonist NKTR-214, with five oncology compounds from Takeda's cancer portfolio. The two companies will explore the anti-cancer activity of NKTR-214 with five different targeted mechanisms in preclinical tumor models of lymphoma, melanoma and colorectal cancer. These compounds include a SYK-inhibitor and a proteasome inhibitor.
• Under the terms of the collaboration, the companies will share costs related to the preclinical studies and each will contribute their respective compounds to the research collaboration. Nektar and Takeda will each maintain global commercial rights to their respective drugs and/or drug candidates.
• Takeda signed the research collaboration agreement with Nektar Therapeutics through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

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