Nektar Therapeutics said Monday that its experimental immunotherapy failed to provide additional benefit for patients with melanoma when given in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb’s approved treatment Opdivo.
The negative trial results cast significant doubt on the future of Nektar’s lead pipeline drug called bempegaldesleukin, which is designed to stimulate T cells in the body of cancer patients, thereby enhancing the tumor-killing power of other immunotherapy treatments.
Nektar and Bristol have a long-running partnership that is conducting multiple late-stage clinical trials of a bempeg-Opdivo combination treatment for patients with different types of cancer.
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