Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) today announced that it has appointed Karin Eastham as an independent director to its Board of Directors. Ms. Eastham brings more than 35 years of experience as both an executive and independent director in the biotechnology industry, with particular expertise in finance and operations. Prior to her retirement in 2008, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Trustee of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.

"Karin is an experienced and highly-regarded leader in the life sciences industry, with particular expertise in finance, accounting and corporate governance," said Howard W. Robin, President and CEO of Nektar Therapeutics. "We are delighted that she is bringing her insight and acumen to our Board as we continue to advance our immuno-oncology, immunology and pain programs."

In her position at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (now called the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute), Ms. Eastham was responsible for managing all non-scientific operations of the Institute, including overseeing business development and strategic planning. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Diversa Corporation, a global leader in developing products for the pharmaceutical and other industries using genomic technologies. Before Diversa, she held the role of Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer at CombiChem, Inc., a computational drug discovery company, and Cytel Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company. Earlier in her career, she was Vice President of Finance at Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostic. She began her career on the audit staff of Price Waterhouse.

"I'm excited to join Nektar's Board and collaborate with other Board members and Nektar's executive leadership team to contribute to the company's mission of developing and delivering innovative medicines for patients living with cancer, auto-immune disease and chronic pain," said Ms. Eastham. "During my thirty-plus year career in biopharma as both an executive and an independent director, I've had multiple opportunities to help companies grow strategically. I look forward to bringing my expertise and experience to Nektar as a new Board member."

In addition to Nektar, Ms. Eastham currently serves as a Board member for Illumina, Inc., Geron, Inc., and Veracyte, Inc. Previously, she has served on the public company boards of Morphosys AG, Trius Therapeutics, Inc., Amylin, Inc., Genoptix, Inc., Tercica, Inc., and SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She has also served on several not-for-profit boards, including the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego, and the San Diego Symphony.

Ms. Eastham received both a B.S. in accounting and an M.B.A. in finance from Indiana University.

Dennis L. Winger, a member of our Board of Directors retired from the Board of Directors effective as of September 26, 2018. 

About Nektar Therapeutics
Nektar Therapeutics is a research-based development stage biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover and develop innovative medicines to address the unmet medical needs of patients. Our R&D pipeline of new investigational medicines includes treatments for cancer, auto-immune disease and chronic pain. We leverage Nektar's proprietary and proven chemistry platform in the discovery and design of our new therapeutic candidates. Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional 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.

Contacts:

For Investors:
Jennifer Ruddock of Nektar Therapeutics
415-482-5585

Jodi Sievers of Nektar Therapeutics
415-482-5593

For Media:
Dan Budwick of 1AB
973-271-6085
dan@1abmedia.com

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SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics