Nektar says Eli Lilly miscalculated data in eczema trial before breaking off rezpeg partnership

Nek­tar Ther­a­peu­tics said its for­mer part­ner Eli Lil­ly had pre­sent­ed “er­ro­neous da­ta” for its atopic der­mati­tis drug be­fore break­ing off a $400 mil­lion al­liance.

Where­as the mis­cal­cu­lat­ed Phase Ib da­ta were enough for Nek­tar to move ahead with plans for a Phase IIb study, the biotech said the “new and cor­rect­ed da­ta” sug­gest its can­di­date, rezpe­galdesleukin, had even bet­ter re­sults on the Eczema Area and Sever­i­ty In­dex (EASI). In par­tic­u­lar, Nek­tar un­der­scored that on the high­est dose, rezpe­galdesleukin spurred an 83% im­prove­ment on EASI at 12 weeks, with a p-val­ue of 0.002 com­pared to place­bo.

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