Oklahoma Firefighters Pension v. Nektar Therapeutics

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

IN RE NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS No. 21-15170

SECURITIES LITIGATION,

D.C. No. 4:18-cv-06607-

OKLAHOMA FIREFIGHTERS PENSION HSG

AND RETIREMENT SYSTEM; EL PASO

FIREMEN & POLICEMENS PENSION

FUND, Lead Plaintiffs, OPINION Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS; HOWARD

W. ROBIN; STEPHEN K. DOBERSTEIN;

JONATHAN ZALEVSKY,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted December 10, 2021 Pasadena, California

Filed May 19, 2022

Before: Milan D. Smith, Jr., Kenneth K. Lee, and Danielle J. Forrest, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Lee IN RE NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS SECURITIES LITIG.

SUMMARY *

Securities Fraud

The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a Second Amended Complaint in which two public pensions sued Nektar Therapeutics for securities fraud, alleging that Nektar misleadingly relied on outlier data from a single patient during the Phase 1 clinical trial of its anti-cancer drug, NKTR-214.

The panel…