On August 7, 2025 Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025 (Press release, Nektar Therapeutics, AUG 7, 2025, View Source [SID1234654991]).
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Cash and investments in marketable securities on June 30, 2025 were $175.9 million as compared to $269.1 million on December 31, 2024. Nektar’s cash and marketable securities at June 30, 2025 do not include $107.5 million of approximate net proceeds from the secondary offering closed on July 2, 2025. With the net proceeds from the secondary offering, we expect our cash and investments in marketable securities to support our operations into the first quarter of 2027.
"This quarter, we announced transformative data for rezpegaldesleukin from the Phase 2b study in patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis," said Howard W. Robin, President and CEO of Nektar. "The 16-week induction data demonstrated that rezpegaldesleukin resulted in a rapid onset of EASI response and itch relief and showcased the advantage of a broad-based Treg mechanism over other mechanistic approaches in development to treat atopic dermatitis. We look forward to seeing the effect of continued treatment with rezpegaldesleukin when we report the 52-week data in early 2026. In alopecia areata, we will report the data from a separate Phase 2b study in December of this year. We believe the data from both randomized studies will demonstrate the potential of rezpegaldesleukin to provide a new treatment paradigm for patients with chronic and serious diseases that significantly impact quality of life. As a first-in-class, T regulatory cell biologic, rezpegaldesleukin is poised to become an important novel mechanism to treat millions of patients with autoimmune disorders."
"We are proceeding in our IND-enabling studies for our next T reg program, NKTR-0165, which targets the TNFR2 receptor to stimulate tissue-specific T regulatory cells," continued Robin. "Our goal is to advance NKTR-0165 into the clinic in 2026. Finally, we are making significant progress on advancing preclinical studies with a new bispecific antibody, NKTR-0166, which combines the TNFR2 epitope with a validated antibody target."
Summary of Financial Results
Revenue in the second quarter of 2025 was $11.2 million as compared to $23.5 million in the second quarter of 2024. Revenue for the first half of 2025 was $21.6 million as compared to $45.1 million in the first half of 2024. Revenue has decreased year over year because we no longer recognize product sales due to the sale of the Huntsville manufacturing facility in December 2024.
Total operating costs and expenses in the second quarter of 2025 were $47.4 million as compared to $73.3 million in the second quarter of 2024. Total operating costs and expenses in the first half of 2025 were $102.4 million as compared to $130.3 million in the first half of 2024. Operating costs and expenses for the first half of 2025 decreased due to the elimination of cost of goods sold following the sale of the Huntsville manufacturing facility, as well as a decrease in restructuring and impairment charges.
R&D expense in the second quarter of 2025 was $29.9 million as compared to $29.7 million for the second quarter of 2024. R&D expense in the first half of 2025 was $60.4 million as compared to $57.1 million for the first half of 2024. R&D expense increased for the first half of 2025 primarily due to an increase in expenses for the development of rezpegaldesleukin and NKTR-0165, partially offset by a decrease in expense for the development of NKTR-255.
G&A expense was $17.1 million in the second quarter of 2025 as compared to $20.5 million in the second quarter of 2024. G&A expense was $41.4 million in the first half of 2025 as compared to $40.7 million in the first half of 2024. G&A expense increased slightly in the first half of 2025 due to an increase in legal expenses, partially offset by decreases in facilities and stock-based compensation expenses.
Non-cash restructuring and impairment charges were not material in the second quarter and first half of 2025. Non-cash restructuring and impairment charges in the second quarter of 2024 were $13.3 million and $14.3 million in the first half of 2024. These non-cash charges were related to the declining San Francisco commercial real estate market and real estate lease obligations held by Nektar.
In the first quarter of 2025, we began accounting for our investment in the new portfolio company, Gannet BioChem, under the equity method of accounting which calculates our gain or loss based on the change in our share of Gannet BioChem’s equity each quarter. This resulted in non-cash losses from the equity method investment of $2.4 million in the second quarter of 2025 and $6.8 million in the first half of 2025.
Net loss for the second quarter of 2025 was $41.6 million or $2.95 basic and diluted loss per share as compared to a net loss of $52.4 million or $3.761 basic and diluted loss per share in the second quarter of 2024. Net loss in the first half of 2025 was $92.5 million or $6.57 basic and diluted loss per share as compared to a net loss of $89.2 million or $6.631 basic and diluted loss per share in the first half of 2024. Excluding the $2.4 million and $6.8 million non-cash loss from our equity method investment in Gannet BioChem, net loss, on a non-GAAP basis, for the second quarter and first half of 2025 were $39.2 million and $85.6 million, respectively, or $2.78 and $6.08 basic and diluted loss per share, respectively.
Recent Business Highlights
● In July of 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for rezpegaldesleukin for the treatment of severe-to-very severe alopecia areata (AA) in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 40 kilograms.
● In July of 2025, Nektar announced the successful closing of a public offering of its common stock including the full exercise of underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, raising $115 million in gross proceeds.
● In June of 2025, Nektar announced that the REZOLVE-AD study achieved statistical significance on the primary endpoint at week 16 for mean percent change in EASI score from baseline for all rezpegaldesleukin arms versus placebo and achieved statistical significance for key secondary endpoints at week 16, including EASI-75, EASI-90, Itch NRS, vIGA-AD and BSA. The rapid onset of EASI reduction and magnitude of itch improvement show potential differentiation of this novel regulatory T-cell mechanism as a first and best-in-class immune-modulator.
● In June of 2025, Nektar collaborators at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center presented oral data for NKTR-255 as adjunctive treatment to cell therapy at the 30th Annual European Hematological Association (EHA) (Free EHA Whitepaper) Congress entitled, "Enhanced CAR T-cell Expansion and Durable Complete Responses with NKTR-255 Plus Lisocabtagene Maraleucel in Relapsed/Refractory Large B-cell Lymphoma."
Conference Call to Discuss Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results
Nektar management will host a conference call to review the results beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/2:00 p.m. Pacific Time on August 7, 2025.
This press release and live audio-only webcast of the conference call can be accessed through a link that is posted on the Home Page and Investors section of the Nektar website: View Source The web broadcast of the conference call will be available for replay through September 8, 2025.
To access the conference call by phone, please pre-register at Nektar Earnings Call Registration. All registrants will receive dial-in information and a PIN allowing them to access the live call.