Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) today announced that it will webcast its presentation at the 32nd Annual Cowen and Company Healthcare Conference to be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

The presentation will be accessible via a Webcast through a link posted on the Investor Relations section of the Nektar website at http://www.nektar.com. This webcast will be available for replay until April 8, 2012.

About Nektar

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on its PEGylation and advanced polymer conjugation technology platforms. Nektar has a robust R&D pipeline of potentially high-value therapeutics in oncology, pain and other therapeutic areas. In the area of pain, Nektar has an exclusive worldwide license agreement with AstraZeneca for naloxegol (NKTR-118), an investigational drug candidate, which is being evaluated in Phase 3 clinical studies as a once-daily, oral tablet for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation.  This agreement also includes NKTR-119, an earlier stage development program that is a co-formulation of naloxegol and an opioid. NKTR-181, a novel mu-opioid analgesic in development to treat chronic pain, has completed Phase 1 development and is being prepared for a Phase 2 study. In oncology, NKTR-102 is being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical study for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and in Phase 2 studies for the treatment of ovarian and colorectal cancers.

Nektar's technology has enabled seven approved products in the U.S. or Europe through partnerships with leading biopharmaceutical companies, including UCB's Cimzia® for Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, Roche's PEGASYS® for hepatitis C and Amgen's Neulasta® for neutropenia. Additional development stage products that leverage Nektar's proprietary technology platform include peginesatide, for which Affymax and partner Takeda submitted a new drug application to the United States Food and Drug Administration in May 2011, and Baxter's BAX 855, a long-acting PEGylated rFVIII program which is in Phase 1 clinical development.

Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional R&D operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad, India. Further information about the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may be found online at http://www.nektar.com.

CONTACT:  Jennifer Ruddock of Nektar Therapeutics, +1-415-482-5585

SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics