BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Clever pegylation pay off

How Nektar’s PEGs turned IL-2 into a viable immunotherapy partner for BMS

March 2, 2018 11:25 PM UTC

Nektar Therapeutics’ clever pegylation strategy allowed it to finesse the PK and dial down the toxicity of IL-2, turning a validated but problematic immuno-oncology mechanism into a viable candidate. The approach snagged a record-breaking deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to combine Nektar’s molecule with PD-1 inhibition, while still leaving Nektar open to develop its own combinations outside the deal.

Recombinant IL-2 was the original immuno-oncology drug. It has been on the U.S. market as Proleukin aldesleukin since 1992 and produces complete and durable responses in subsets of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) or melanoma. ...