ASCO: Complete response rate in Nektar melanoma trial hits 34%

Nektar Therapeutics has posted updated data on its NKTR-214-Opdivo cocktail in first-line melanoma. The data features four more complete responses, bringing the rate up 10 percentage points to 34%.Around this time last year, Nektar left the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting bruised after the 50% response rate in its NKTR-214-Opdivo trial underwhelmed. Months later, the next update at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2018 meeting did little better, with the bump up to 53% failing to convince many people that the combination is a winner.