Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)
Nektar Therapeutics News
On Monday before the market opened, Nektar Therapeutics announced that they received positive results from NKTR-181, an opioid analgesic, that was developed to provide strong pain relief while eliminating the “high levels of euphria” that often contributes to patients becoming addicted and/or abusing the treatment.
This is great news and something to keep an eye on as further testing takes place in the future. Pain killers have grown to be a major problem in the US as addiction and abuse can often lead to death.
NKTR Technicals
Shares of NKTR are looking to gap up over 20% following the positive news of NKTR-181 with premarket highs currently at $19.50 after closing Friday at $15.50. This has a little bit higher share price than the penny stocks I like to trade but it should still provide plenty of opportunity.
There is a key pivot level at $20 so look for some hesitation there but after that we have room up to $22.50. This should be a very active stock with high relative volume as this gapper will be hitting a lot of trader’s radars this morning, so expect increased volatility and possibly wider spreads than normal as prices work themselves out at the open.
Comments
“The data from this efficacy study are extremely important because they demonstrate that NKTR-181 produces strong analgesia in patients suffering from chronic pain while NKTR-181 has also demonstrated significantly lower abuse potential than oxycodone in a human abuse potential study,” said clinical investigator Martin Hale, M.D., medical director of Gold Coast Research.
“While standard opioid analgesics, including abuse-deterrent formulations, have been the most effective way to treat chronic pain, they are associated with serious safety concerns and many opioid-naïve patients fear taking them because of the potential for abuse and addiction. The data for NKTR-181 suggest that it is a transformational pain medicine that could fundamentally change how we treat patients with chronic pain conditions.”
Company Profile
Nektar Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which engages in developing drug candidates that utilize its PEGylation and polymer conjugate technology platforms. Its products includes of drug candidates of therapeutic areas, including oncology, pain, anti-infectives, anti-viral, and immunology.
It provides small molecule drugs, peptides and other potential biologic drug candidates. It’s drug candidates are designed to improve the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, half-life, bioavailability, metabolism or distribution of drugs and improve the overall benefits and use of a drug for the patient. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.