On January 5, 2021 Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) reported that it has appointed Brian Kotzin, MD as Interim Chief Medical Officer, Head of Development effective immediately (Press release, Nektar Therapeutics, JAN 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234573515]). Since 2017, Dr. Kotzin has served as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and Head of Immunology at Nektar. Wei Lin will be leaving the company to pursue another opportunity.

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"We are pleased that Dr. Kotzin will take on this key role on our development team at Nektar," said Jonathan Zalevsky, Chief R&D Officer of Nektar Therapeutics. "Since he joined Nektar in 2017, Dr. Kotzin has demonstrated strong leadership and strategic insight. He has extensive development experience and over 30 years of expertise in immunology and his strategic guidance will be invaluable to Nektar as we continue to execute on development activities for our immune-oncology and immunology pipeline."

Brian Kotzin, MD added, "I am honored to expand my role at Nektar and work alongside Dr. Zalevsky. This is an exciting time for the company with multiple registrational studies underway in a range of tumor types for BEMPEG, a broadening clinical program for NKTR-358 in a number of auto-immune disorders, and an emerging opportunity for NKTR-255 in both hematological malignancies and solid tumors."

While at Nektar, Dr. Kotzin has spearheaded the NKTR-358 development program partnered with Eli Lilly & Co. and he has also served as a development program lead for early development of NKTR-255 and NKTR-262. Dr. Kotzin was previously at Amgen for 11 years, where he served as Vice President, Global Clinical Development and Head of the Inflammation Therapeutic area directing the global development efforts for Amgen product candidates, including all immunology programs. During his tenure at Amgen, he also served as Vice President of Translational Sciences and Head of Medical Sciences/Early Development, where he was responsible for the planning and execution of early-phase clinical development in all therapeutic areas as well as the discovery and implementation of pharmacodynamic biomarkers and clinical immunology support for clinical studies. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Kotzin served as Head of Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine and as director of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. He previously held the position of Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Immunology at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. In addition to academic posts in rheumatology and microbiology/immunology, Dr. Kotzin served at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Denver as chief of the Rheumatology Section. Dr. Kotzin received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Southern California and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology and medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is board certified in rheumatology and internal medicine.

"Over the past two years, Wei has played a leadership role in recruiting an experienced clinical development organization and executing a late-stage clinical development strategy for BEMPEG, positioning it for future success. I would like to thank him for his contributions to Nektar, and wish him the best in his next opportunity," continued Zalevsky.

On January 5, 2021 Immuneering Corporation reported the completion of an oversubscribed $62 million Series B financing led by Cormorant Asset Management, with participation from Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Rock Springs Capital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Perceptive Advisors and LYFE Capital (Press release, Immuneering, JAN 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234574720]). Existing investors and senior management also participated in the financing.

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Immuneering will use proceeds from the financing to advance to clinical stage programs focused on targets in the RAS/MAPK pathway, a cellular signaling pathway commonly activated in many different tumor types and cancers. The company will also continue advancing additional programs in neuroscience and immuno-oncology, further develop its Disease Cancelling Technology (DCT) platform and enhance its computational biology services business.

"Our Disease Cancelling Technology platform has provided insights into therapies that can offer differentiated efficacy and safety with drugs targeting cancers driven by alterations that activate the RAS/MAPK pathway," said Ben Zeskind, Ph.D., MBA, co-founder and chief executive officer of Immuneering. "We are pleased to have such strong support from both our current and new investors as we begin our next phase of growth and advance our leading program targeting MEK into the clinic."

Andrew Phillips of Cormorant Asset Management stated, "With new treatments urgently needed for patients who have tumors dependent on MAPK signaling, we are thrilled to lead this Series B financing and bring together a syndicate to support Immuneering at a pivotal stage in the company’s growth. We are impressed by the biological insights that went into IMM-1-104 and its differentiated preclinical profile relative to other MEK inhibitors. IMM-1-104 is poised to potentially overcome limitations of current MEK inhibitors in providing deep pathway suppression alongside improved tolerability."

On January 5, 2021 Sierra Oncology, Inc. (SRRA), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company on a quest to deliver targeted therapies that treat rare forms of cancer, reported that President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Dilly, MBBS, PhD, will present an overview of the company at the H.C. Wainwright 2021 BioConnect Virtual Conference taking place January 11-14, 2021 (Press release, Sierra Oncology, JAN 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234573465]).

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The presentation will be available online beginning at 6:00 am ET on Monday, January 11, 2021 via the below link. A replay of the presentation will be available following the conference on the Investors section of Sierra’s corporate website in the Events & Webcast tab.

Presentation Link: View Source

On January 5, 2021 HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGM) (HTG), a life science company whose mission is to advance precision medicine, reported certain preliminary, unaudited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2020 (Press release, HTG Molecular Diagnostics, JAN 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234573483]).

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Total revenue for the full year 2020 is expected to be approximately $8.5 million. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities are expected to be approximately $28.7 million as of December 31, 2020.

"Clearly COVID-19 impacted our core oncology business as planned studies were delayed and operations in many of our customers’ laboratories were suspended or significantly curtailed," said John Lubniewski, CEO of HTG. "Despite these challenges, we saw returning strength in our core business in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter of 2020. We successfully advanced our strategies to increase customer diversification into smaller and mid-sized biopharma companies and expand business with large, academic medical centers. In addition, we expanded our market reach beyond oncology into immune response, gaining several new customers and programs in the fourth quarter. Although we cannot predict the extent or duration of COVID-19’s impact on our business in 2021, we are excited about our recent expansion into the immune response market."

Mr. Lubniewski continued, "We also remain very focused on our 20,000 plus gene whole transcriptome product that is in development and have executed several letters of intent with potential collaborators for our early access program in December 2020. We look forward to working with these organizations and believe, with this approach, we will have a successful initial product launch, currently on track for the third quarter of 2021. We believe we have used 2020 to strengthen the company and set the stage for revenue growth in 2021."

The preliminary results set forth above are unaudited, are based on management’s initial review of the company’s results as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020 and are subject to revision based upon the company’s year-end closing procedures and the completion and external audit of the company’s year-end financial statements. Actual results may differ materially from these preliminary unaudited results as a result of the completion of year-end closing procedures, final adjustments and other developments arising between now and the time that company’s financial results are finalized, and such changes could

be material. In addition, these preliminary unaudited results are not a comprehensive statement of the company’s financial results for the year ended December 31, 2020, should not be viewed as a substitute for full, audited financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and are not necessarily indicative of the company’s results for any future period.

The company expects to announce full 2020 financial results in advance of its quarterly conference call in March 2021.

On January 5, 2021 Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO), a genomic medicine company, reported that management will present a corporate overview at the 39th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, January 13th at 5:20pm EST (Press release, Sangamo Therapeutics, JAN 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234573501]).

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The virtual session will be webcast live and may be accessed via a link on the Sangamo Therapeutics website in the Investors and Media section under Events and Presentations. The presentation will also be available on the Sangamo website after the event.