Nektar Therapeutics And Pfizer Enter Into New Clinical Oncology Collaboration

(RTTNews) - Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) said that it has entered into an oncology clinical collaboration with Pfizer Inc. (PFE) to evaluate several combination regimens in multiple cancer settings, including metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer or mCRPC and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck or SCCHN.

The collaboration will evaluate Nektar's lead immuno-oncology candidate, the CD122-biased agonist NKTR-214 with avelumab, a human anti-PD-L1 antibody in development by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer; talazoparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor developed by Pfizer; or enzalutamide, an androgen receptor inhibitor in development by Pfizer and Astellas Pharma Inc.

As per the new collaboration, Pfizer will initiate a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial to evaluate the anti-cancer activity of the combined agents, avelumab, talazoparib and NKTR-214 and separately avelumab, enzalutamide and NKTR-214. Nektar, Pfizer and their respective partners will each maintain global commercial rights to their respective medicines.