San Francisco-based Nektar Therapeutics has filed a lawsuit against its former partner, Eli Lilly, claiming that Eli Lilly had been sabotaging and undermining the development of their shared autoimmune drug, rezpegaldesleukin (rezpeg).
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Eli Lilly breached the contract between the two companies, under which the company was responsible for developing and commercializing rezpeg.
Not only that, but Nektar is claiming that Lilly is also responsible for creating unfair competition for the drug, negligent misrepresentation, and other wrongdoing for which it should be made to pay compensatory and punitive damages.
In 2017, both companies entered into a contract to produce rezpeg for the treatment of autoimmune diseases like psoriasis and eczema. Later, in 2020, Lilly acquired a company named Dermira Inc for over $1 billion in cash, even though Dermira Inc was a company known to be developing a competing atopic dermatitis drug.
In addition to this, Nektar is calling out Lilly for incorrectly reporting data from two early-stage studies for the drug in patients suffering from psoriasis and eczema.
Study Comparisons: Lilly vs. Nektar on Autoimmune Drug Efficacy
- Lilly’s study: Patients with psoriasis treated at highest dose for 12 weeks showed 40% disease severity reduction.
- Nektar’s findings: Similar dose led to additional 4% improvement, lowering severity to 44%.
- Psoriasis trials: Nektar’s study revealed over 20% patients had >75% symptom improvement; Lilly reported half of that figure.
- Atopic dermatitis (eczema): Lilly’s study saw 66% disease severity decrease with highest dose.
- Nektar’s tests showed about 83% reduction in severity for eczema patients at the same dosage level.
Lilly’s eczema trial showed that less than 30% of the patients on the highest dosage showed an improvement of 75% or over, but in the case of Nektar, the percentage rose to over 40%. There was, in fact, even a difference in the placebo-adjusted mean improvement on the eczema scale for both Nektar and Eli Lilly.
In Nektar’s case, the scale showed a 36% improvement in patients, with the placebo-adjusted mean improvement on the eczema scale, while Lilly’s publication only reported an improvement of 17%.
These new findings were shared by Nektar in September at a meeting hosted by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. It was only earlier this year, in April, when Lilly returned rights to rezpeg back to Nektar, along with raw clinical data related to the drug. After this new data was made public, the price of company shares rose by 60%, to 86 cents.
“This case involves the all-too-familiar story of a large pharmaceutical company elevating profits over all else,” Nektar said in the complaint. “Lilly, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, shirked its clinical and contractual responsibilities to its joint development partner, San Francisco-based Nektar.”
