Shares of Nektar Therapeutics soared 26% in premarket trade Monday, putting them on track to open at the highest level seen since January 2001, after the biopharmaceutical company announced over the weekend positive data from a trial of its cancer treatment. The company said Saturday that data from the Pivot-02 phase 1/2 study, designed to evaluate the combination of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo with its investigational medicine NKTR-214, demonstrated “important” response rates across the three types of tumors tested. The company said it and Bristol-Myers are now actively enrolling patients in the phase 2 expansion part of the study in five tumor types. Nektar’s stock has rocketed 165% year to date through Friday, while Bristol-Myers shares have tacked on 4.1%, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF has climbed 18% and the S&P 500 has gained 15%.
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