Nektar Therapeutics Strengthens Board of Directors with Appointment of Diana M. Brainard, M.D.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) today announced it has appointed Diana M. Brainard, M.D., as an independent director to its Board of Directors. Dr. Brainard brings over two decades of experience working in the healthcare sector and academia to Nektar. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AlloVir, Inc., a leading late clinical stage cell therapy company with a focus on restoring natural immunity against life-threatening viral diseases in pediatric and adult patients with weakened immune systems.

"We are very pleased to welcome Diana to our Board of Directors," said Howard W. Robin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nektar. "Her wealth of experience in clinical development, regulatory strategy and successful commercial launches will be instrumental in Nektar's operations as we continue to advance our pipeline of immune-oncology and immunology candidates through upcoming milestones."

Dr. Brainard was appointed CEO of AlloVir in May of 2021. Since joining AlloVir as CEO, she has led a number of successful initiatives ranging from scaling of manufacturing processes and capabilities to establishing the company's business development strategy. Dr. Brainard also serves as a director on the Board of Directors of AlloVir and is a member of the TriNetX Strategic Advisory Board. Previously, Dr. Brainard was Senior Vice President and Head of the Virology therapeutic area at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she served for over ten years in an enterprise-wide leadership role building out the company's virology franchise.

"Nektar has an exceptional leadership team and portfolio of clinical-stage therapeutics for patients suffering from cancer and autoimmune disorders," said Dr. Brainard. "I am looking forward to joining the Board and working with the Nektar executive team as these promising clinical-stage programs advance."

Dr. Brainard performed her internal medicine and infectious diseases fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Following completion of her medical training, she was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School where she conducted NIH-funded research on HIV immunology and T-cell trafficking. Dr. Brainard received a B.A. in comparative literature at Brown University and an M.D. at Tulane University School of Medicine.

About Nektar

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with a robust, wholly owned R&D pipeline of investigational medicines in oncology, immunology and virology well as a portfolio of approved partnered medicines. 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 https://www.nektar.com.

Contact:

For Investors:
Vivian Wu of Nektar Therapeutics
628-895-0661

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

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SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics