Why Nektar Therapeutics Shares Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Nektar Therapeutics climbed 12% today after its quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations.

So what: The stock has soared over the past year on a string of better-than-expected quarters, and today's Q2 results -- adjusted loss of $0.37 per share topped Wall Street by $0.04 on a revenue jump of 43% -- suggest that the momentum isn't slowing. Additionally, giant drug partner AstraZeneca also confirmed that it will indeed file its constipation drug NKTR-118 in September, raising the possibility of a sweet $95 million milestone score for Nektar.

Expect the next several months to be particularly eventful.

"We are on track to report high-level results from the Phase 2 efficacy study of NKTR-181 in chronic pain patients this summer," said CEO Howard Robin. "Finally, we recently completed enrollment in our Phase 3 study of NKTR-102 ahead of schedule. NKTR-102 is the first long-acting topoisomerase I inhibitor being developed for the treatment of advanced breast cancer and we expect survival data from this pivotal trial next year."

So while the stock might be too hot and risky for average investors, biotech-savvy Fools might want to follow Nektar's story a little more closely.

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The article Why Nektar Therapeutics Shares Popped originally appeared on Fool.com.

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