Nektar Appoints Dr. Brian Kotzin as Interim Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development

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