SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) announced today that it has appointed
Brian Kotzin, MD as Interim Chief
Medical Officer, Head of Development effective immediately. Since
2017, Dr. Kotzin has served as Senior Vice President, Clinical
Development and Head of Immunology at Nektar. Wei Lin will be leaving the company to pursue
another opportunity.
"We are pleased that Dr. Kotzin will take on this key role on
our development team at Nektar," said Jonathan Zalevsky, Chief R&D Officer of
Nektar Therapeutics. "Since he joined Nektar in 2017, Dr. Kotzin
has demonstrated strong leadership and strategic insight. He has
extensive development experience and over 30 years of expertise in
immunology and his strategic guidance will be invaluable
to Nektar as we continue to execute on development
activities for our immune-oncology and immunology pipeline."
Brian Kotzin, MD added, "I am
honored to expand my role at Nektar and work alongside Dr.
Zalevsky. This is an exciting time for the company with multiple
registrational studies underway in a range of tumor types for
BEMPEG, a broadening clinical program for NKTR-358 in a number of
auto-immune disorders, and an emerging opportunity for NKTR-255 in
both hematological malignancies and solid tumors."
While at Nektar, Dr. Kotzin has spearheaded the NKTR-358
development program partnered with Eli Lilly & Co. and he has
also served as a development program lead for early development of
NKTR-255 and NKTR-262. Dr. Kotzin was previously at Amgen for 11
years, where he served as Vice President, Global Clinical
Development and Head of the Inflammation Therapeutic area directing
the global development efforts for Amgen product candidates,
including all immunology programs. During his tenure at Amgen, he
also served as Vice President of Translational Sciences and Head of
Medical Sciences/Early Development, where he was responsible for
the planning and execution of early-phase clinical development in
all therapeutic areas as well as the discovery and implementation
of pharmacodynamic biomarkers and clinical immunology support for
clinical studies. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Kotzin served as Head
of Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine and as
director of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at
the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center in Denver. He previously held the position of
Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and
Immunology at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center
in Denver. In addition to academic posts in rheumatology and
microbiology/immunology, Dr. Kotzin served at the Veterans
Administration Medical Center in Denver as chief of the
Rheumatology Section. Dr. Kotzin received a B.S. in mathematics
from the University of Southern
California and an M.D. from Stanford
University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in
internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology and medicine at
Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He
was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Immunology and
Rheumatology at Stanford University
School of Medicine. He is board certified in rheumatology and
internal medicine.
"Over the past two years, Wei has played a leadership role in
recruiting an experienced clinical development organization and
executing a late-stage clinical development strategy for BEMPEG,
positioning it for future success. I would like to thank him for
his contributions to Nektar, and wish him the best in his next
opportunity," continued Zalevsky.
About Nektar
Nektar Therapeutics is a
biopharmaceutical company with a robust, wholly owned R&D
pipeline of investigational medicines in oncology, immunology, and
virology as well as a portfolio of approved partnered medicines.
Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco,
California, with additional operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad, India. Further information about
the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may
be found online at http://www.nektar.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements which can be identified by words such as: "will,"
"develop," "may" and similar references to future periods. Examples
of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we
make regarding the therapeutic potential of bempegaldesleukin
(BEMPEG), NKTR-255, NKTR-358, and NKTR-262, as well as the
availability of results and outcomes from clinical studies of our
drug candidates. Forward-looking statements are neither historical
facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based
only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding
the future of our business, future plans and strategies,
anticipated events and trends, and other future conditions. Because
forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject
to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that
are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our
control. Our actual results may differ materially from those
indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should
not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important
factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially
from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include,
among others: (i) our statements regarding the therapeutic
potential of our drug candidates are based on preclinical and
clinical findings and the expected therapeutic potential for each
of our drug candidates is subject to change as research and
development continue; (ii) our drug candidates are in clinical
development and the risk of failure remains high and failure can
unexpectedly occur at any stage for one or more of the indications
being studied prior to regulatory approval due to lack of
sufficient efficacy, safety considerations or other factors that
impact drug development; (iii) data reported from ongoing
preclinical and clinical trials are necessarily interim data only
and the final results will change based on continuing observations;
(iv) scientific discovery of new medical breakthroughs is an
inherently uncertain process and the future success of potential
new drug candidates (such as bempegaldesleukin, NKTR-255, NKTR-358,
and NKTR-262) is therefore very uncertain and unpredictable; (v)
the timing of the commencement or end of clinical studies and the
availability of clinical data may be delayed or unsuccessful due to
regulatory delays, slower than anticipated patient enrollment,
manufacturing challenges, changing standards of care, evolving
regulatory requirements, clinical trial design, clinical outcomes,
delays caused by our collaboration partners, and enrollment
competition; (vi) patents may not issue from our patent
applications for our drug candidates, patents that have issued may
not be enforceable, or additional intellectual property licenses
from third parties may be required; and (vii) certain other
important risks and uncertainties set forth in Nektar's Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on November 6, 2020. Any
forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based
only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of
the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to update
any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be
made from time to time, whether as a result of new information,
future developments or otherwise.
Contact:
For Investors:
Vivian
Wu of Nektar Therapeutics
628-895-0661
vwu@nektar.com
For Media:
Dan Budwick
of 1AB
973-271-6085
dan@1abmedia.com
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SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics