Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed here. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this section as well as factors described in “Part I, Item 1A — Risk Factors.”

Overview

Strategic Direction of Our Business

Nektar Therapeutics is a clinical stage, research-based drug discovery biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative medicines in the field of immunotherapy. Within this growing field, we direct our efforts toward creating new immunomodulatory agents that selectively induce, amplify, attenuate or prevent immune responses in order to achieve desired therapeutic outcomes. We apply our deep understanding of immunology and unparalleled expertise in polymer chemistry to create innovative drug candidates and use our drug development expertise to advance these molecules through preclinical and clinical development . Our pipeline of clinical-stage immunomodulatory agents targets the treatment of autoimmune diseases (e.g. rezpegaldesleukin) and cancer (e.g. NKTR-255). We continue to make significant investments in building and advancing our pipeline of drug candidates as we believe that this is the best strategy to build long-term shareholder value.

In April 2022, we announced new strategic reorganization and cost restructuring plans (together, the 2022 Restructuring Plan) focused on prioritizing key research and development efforts that will be most impactful to the Company’s future, including our rezpegaldesleukin (previously referred to as NKTR-358) and NKTR-255 programs and several core research programs.

Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases cause the immune system to mistakenly attack and damage healthy cells in a person's body. A failure of the body's self-tolerance mechanisms enables the formation of the pathogenic T lymphocytes that conduct this attack. Our drug candidate rezpegaldesleukin is a potential first-in-class resolution therapeutic that may address this underlying immune system imbalance in people with autoimmune disorders and inflammatory diseases. It is designed to target the interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor complex in the body in order to stimulate proliferation of powerful inhibitory immune cells known as regulatory T cells (Treg cells). By activating these cells, rezpegaldesleukin may act to bring the immune system back into balance. Rezpegaldesleukin is being developed as a once or twice monthly self-administered injection for a number of autoimmune disorders and inflammatory diseases. In 2017, we entered into a worldwide license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to develop and commercialize rezpegaldesleukin, pursuant to which we received an initial payment of $150.0 million and are eligible for up to an additional $250.0 million for development and regulatory milestones. We have completed our responsibilities for Phase 1 clinical development and certain drug product development and supply activities. We also share Phase 2 development costs with Lilly, with Lilly responsible for 75% and Nektar responsible for 25% of these costs. Lilly is responsible for the costs of Phase 3 development, but we retain the option to contribute up to 25% of the costs of Phase 3 development on an indication-by-indication basis in order for us to achieve the maximum royalty level under the Lilly Agreement, and further, if approved, we will have the opportunity to receive a royalty rate up to the low twenties percent based upon our Phase 3 development cost contribution and the level of annual global product sales.We have announced our intention to exercise our option to fully fund Nektar’s 25% share of the Phase 3 development costs for rezpegaldesleukin.

Rezpegaldesleukin has advanced to Phase 2 development, which our collaboration partner, Lilly, has carried out in various indications. On February 23, 2023, we announced the topline data from the Phase 2 study of rezpegaldesleukin in adult patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (Phase 2 Lupus Study). The primary endpoint of the Phase 2 Lupus Study, a >4-points reduction in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) score, was not met and Lilly has notified us that it does not intend to advance rezpegaldesleukin into Phase 3 development for SLE. Although the Phase 2 Lupus Study did not meet its primary endpoint, patients within the modified intent-to-treat population, defined as all patients who were randomized and received at least one dose of study medication, that were treated with rezpegaldesleukin demonstrated improvement in SLEDAI-2K score as compared to placebo. Additionally, clinically meaningful improvements were observed in the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG)-Based Composite Lupus Assessment (BICLA) response and Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) as compared to placebo, and exploratory biomarker data also showed that rezpegaldesleukin led to dose-dependent proliferation of Treg cells, which was consistent with prior studies.

In oncology, we focus on developing medicines that target biological pathways that stimulate and sustain the body’s immune response in order to fight cancer. Our drug candidate NKTR-255 is an investigational biologic that is designed to target the IL-15 pathway in order to activate the body's innate and adaptive immunity. Through optimal engagement of the IL-15 receptor complex, NKTR-255 is designed to enhance functional NK cell populations and formation of long-term immunological memory, which may lead to sustained and durable anti-tumor immune response. Preclinical findings suggest NKTR-255 has the potential to synergistically combine with antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity molecules as well as to enhance CAR-T therapies. Our development strategy for NKTR-255 is focused on three therapeutic areas: to enhance response to antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) mediated therapies by restoring NK cells, to improve CAR-T cell persistency in cellular therapies and to augment response to checkpoint inhibitors.

We are studying NKTR-255 in ADCC combinations in both liquid and solid tumors. We have initiated a Phase 1 dose escalation and expansion study of NKTR-255 in patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma or multiple myeloma where patients are treated with NKTR-255 as a monotherapy or NKTR-255 in combination with daratumumab. We have also initiated a Phase 1/2 study of NKTR-255 in patients with relapsed or refractory head and neck squamous cell carcinoma or colorectal cancer where patients are treated with NKTR-255 in combination with cetuximab. In addition, we initiated a Nektar-sponsored Phase 2/3 study to evaluate NKTR-255 following Yescarta® or Breyanzi® CD19 CAR-T cell therapy in patients with large B-cell lymphoma. Two ongoing investigator sponsored trials are evaluating NKTR-255 following treatment with a CAR-T cell therapy. These studies include a Phase 1 study evaluating NKTR-255 in combination with CD19 CAR-T cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma and a Phase 1 study evaluating NKTR-255 in combination with CD19/22 CAR-T cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A third investigator sponsored study is evaluating NKTR-255 in combination with darvulamab in patients with unresectable Stage 3 non-small lung cancer who have received chemoradiation. We are continuing our oncology clinical collaboration with Merck KGaA and Pfizer Inc. to evaluate the maintenance regimen of NKTR-255 in combination with

avelumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma in the Phase II JAVELIN Bladder Medley study.

We continue to advance our most promising research drug candidates into preclinical development with the objective of advancing these early-stage research programs to human clinical studies over the next several years. Our lead research program is focused on developing a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor 2 (TNFR2) agonist antibody. TNFR2 signaling drives immunoregulatory function and can provide a direct protective effect for tissue cells. Our focus is on TNFR2 antibody candidates that show selective Treg cell binding and signaling profiles that may be developed for treatment of autoimmune diseases. In connection with this program, we are targeting IND readiness for a lead TNFR2 agonist antibody candidate by the end of 2023 in order to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) filing for the first clinical study in 2024. We also plan to continue our preclinical stage NKTR-288 development program. NKTR-288 is an investigational PEG conjugate of the protein interferon gamma that is designed utilizing a site-specific conjugation approach to modify binding of interferon gamma with one of its substrates and to optimize the pharmacodynamic duration of interferon gamma signaling. We believe this program has applications in a number of therapeutic indications including oncology as well as in other infectious diseases.

We have historically derived all of our revenue and substantial amounts of research and development operating capital from our collaboration agreements. In addition to our collaboration with Lilly, we have received upfront and milestone payments under a number of other previous collaboration agreements, several of which have resulted in approved drugs, for which we may continue to manufacture the polymer reagents used in the production of the drug products and may be entitled to royalties for net sales of these approved drugs. However, we have sold the majority of our rights to receive royalties under these arrangements, including:

•2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement: In 2012, we sold all of our rights to receive royalties from CIMZIA® (for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and other autoimmune indications) and MIRCERA® (for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease) under our collaborations with UCB Pharma and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, respectively, to RPI Finance Trust (RPI), an affiliate of Royalty Pharma for $124.0 million.

•2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement: In December 2020, we sold our rights, subject to a cap, to receive royalties from MOVANTIK® / MOVENTIG® (for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation), ADYNOVATE® / ADYNOVI® (a half-life extension product of Factor VIII) and other hemophilia products, under our arrangements with AstraZeneca AB, Baxalta, Inc. (a wholly owned-subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.), and Novo Nordisk A/S, respectively, for $150.0 million to entities managed by HealthCare Royalty Management (HCR) under a capped sale arrangement, such that all future royalties return to Nektar if HCR receives $210.0 million in royalties by December 31, 2025 (the 2025 Threshold) or $240.0 million if the 2025 Threshold is not met.

Our business is subject to significant risks, including the risks inherent in our development efforts, the results of our clinical trials, our dependence on the marketing efforts by our collaboration partners, uncertainties associated with obtaining and enforcing patents, the lengthy and expensive regulatory approval process and competition from other products. Drug research and development is an inherently uncertain process with a high risk of failure at every stage prior to approval. The timing and outcome of clinical trial results are extremely difficult to predict. Clinical development successes and failures can have a disproportionately positive or negative impact on our scientific and medical prospects, financial condition and prospects, results of operations and market opportunities. We continue to actively monitor the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and applicable government recommendations in light of new developments. If the COVID-19 pandemic is further prolonged or becomes more severe, our business operations and corresponding financial results could suffer, which could have a material adverse impact on our prospects for growth. For a discussion of these and some of the other key risks and uncertainties affecting our business, see Item 1A “Risk Factors.”

With respect to financing our near-term business needs, as set forth below in “Key Developments and Trends in Liquidity and Capital Resources,” we estimate we have working capital to fund our current business plans through at least the next twelve months. At December 31, 2022, we had approximately $505.0 million in cash and investments in marketable securities.

Results of Operations

Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021

The results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 is presented below. Additional information required by Item 7 for the year ended December 31, 2020 can be found in Item 7 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year December 31, 2021, filed with the SEC on March 1, 2022 and is incorporated herein by reference.

Revenue (in thousands, except percentages)

Year Ended December 31, Increase/(Decrease) PercentageIncrease/(Decrease)

Our revenue is derived from our collaboration agreements, under which we may receive product sales revenue, royalties, and license fees, as well as development and sales milestones and other contingent payments. We recognize revenue when we transfer promised goods or services to our collaboration partners. The amount of upfront fees received under our license and collaboration agreements allocated to continuing obligations, such as development or manufacturing and supply commitments, is generally recognized as we deliver products or provide development services. As a result, there may be significant variations in the timing of receipt of cash payments and our recognition of revenue. We make our best estimate of the timing and amount of products and services expected to be required to fulfill our performance obligations. Given the uncertainties in research and development collaborations, significant judgment is required to make these estimates.

Product Sales

Product sales include predominantly fixed price manufacturing and supply agreements with our collaboration partners and are the result of firm purchase orders from those partners. The timing of shipments is based solely on the demand and requirements of our collaboration partners and is not ratable throughout the year.

Product sales decreased for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, due to decreased demand from our collaboration partners. We expect product sales for 2023 to be consistent with 2022.

Non-cash Royalty Revenue Related to Sales of Future Royalties

For a discussion of our Non-cash royalty revenue, please see our discussion below “Non-Cash Royalty Revenue and Non-Cash Interest Expense.”

License, Collaboration and Other Revenue

License, collaboration and other revenue includes the recognition of upfront payments, milestone and other contingent payments received in connection with our license and collaboration agreements and certain research and development activities. The level of license, collaboration and other revenue depends in part upon the estimated recognition period of the upfront payments allocated to continuing performance obligations, the achievement of milestones and other contingent events, the continuation of existing collaborations, the amount of research and development work, and entering into new collaboration agreements, if any. During the year ended December 31, 2022, we recognized $1.5 million for a license agreement, under which we are entitled to no further consideration. As a result of the recognition of this revenue, revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to year ended December 31, 2021. We do not expect significant license, collaboration and other revenue for 2023.

The timing and future success of our drug development programs and those of our collaboration partners are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. See Item 1A. Risk Factors for discussion of the risks associated with the complex nature of our collaboration agreements.

Revenue by geography (in thousands)

Revenue by geographic area is based on the headquarters or shipping locations of our partners. The following table sets forth revenue by geographic area:

Year Ended December 31,

Cost of goods sold (in thousands, except percentages)

Product gross margin (6) % (5) %

Our strategy is to manufacture and supply polymer reagents to our third-party collaborators where we have a strategic development and commercialization relationship or where we derive substantial economic benefit. Typically, we have elected to enter into and maintain those manufacturing relationships associated with long-term collaboration agreements which include multiple sources of revenue, which we view holistically and in aggregate. We have a predominantly fixed cost base associated with our manufacturing activities. As a result, our product gross profit and margin are significantly impacted by the mix and volume of products sold in each period.

Product gross margin was negative for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. We have a manufacturing arrangement with a partner that includes a fixed price which is less than the fully burdened manufacturing cost for the polymer reagent, and we expect this arrangement to continue in future years. We also receive royalty revenue from this collaboration. In each of the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, the royalty revenue from this collaboration exceeded the related negative gross margin.

We expect product gross margin to continue to fluctuate in future periods depending on the level and mix of manufacturing orders from our customers. We expect product gross profit to be negative in 2023 as a result of the collaborative arrangement described above.

Research and development expense (in thousands, except percentages)

Research and development expense consists primarily of clinical study costs, contract manufacturing costs, direct costs of outside research, materials, supplies, licenses and fees as well as personnel costs (including salaries, benefits, and stock-based compensation). Research and development expense also includes certain overhead allocations consisting of support and facilities-related costs. Where we perform research and development activities under a joint development collaboration, such as our collaboration with BMS, we record the expense reimbursement from our partners as a reduction to research and development expense, and we record our share of our partners’ expenses as an increase to research and development expense. Under the BMS Collaboration Agreement, BMS generally bears 67.5% of development costs for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® and 35% of costs for manufacturing bempegaldesleukin.

As discussed in Note 1 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, in April 2022, BMS and we decided to discontinue development of bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® and will wind down the various clinical trials under the BMS Collaboration Agreement, and we also decided to discontinue all other development of bempegaldesleukin. The cost sharing under the BMS Collaboration Agreement remained unchanged through December 31, 2022. Additionally, we have implemented the 2022 Restructuring Plan to reduce our workforce by approximately 70%. As a result of our termination of the development program, research and development expense includes development expenses for bempegaldesleukin only for the first quarter of 2022. For the remaining three quarters of 2022, we reported clinical trial expense, other third-party costs and employee costs for the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program, net of the reimbursement from BMS, within restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program in our Consolidated Statement of Operations.

We utilize our employee and infrastructure resources across multiple development and research programs. The following table presents expenses incurred for clinical and regulatory services, clinical supplies, and preclinical study support provided by third parties as well as contract manufacturing costs for each of our drug candidates. The table also presents other costs and overhead consisting of personnel, facilities and other indirect costs (in thousands):

ClinicalStudyStatus(1) Year Ended December 31,

Rezpegaldesleukin (cytokine Treg stimulant)(3) Phase 1/2 11,148 9,376

Discovery research, manufacturing and other costs Various 10,812 34,200

Stock-based compensation and depreciation 35,231 64,643

_______________________________________________________________

(1)Clinical Study Status definitions are provided in Part I, Item 1. Business.

(2)In April 2022, BMS and we terminated the development of the bempegaldesleukin program. Accordingly, development expenses for bempegaldesleukin are reported in research and development expense for the first quarter of 2022 and for the full year of 2021. For the remaining three quarters of 2022, we reported third party costs for the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program in restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program. The amounts for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 and the year ended December, 31, 2021 include net reductions of $15.1 million and $64.3 million, respectively, of development cost reimbursements from BMS under our collaboration, net of our share of BMS’s costs.

(3)The amounts includes our 25% share of costs incurred by Lilly for the Phase 1B and Phase 2 development of rezpegaldesleukin. Lilly is responsible for 75% of costs.

(4)The amounts include reductions of $9.8 million and $37.2 million of employee cost reimbursements from BMS under our collaboration for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 and the year ended December 31, 2021, respectively. For the remaining three quarters of 2022, we reported direct employee costs supporting the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program in restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program.

Because we reported development expenses for bempegaldesleukin in research and development expense for only the quarter ended March 31, 2022, research and development expense decreased significantly for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. During the quarter ended March 31, 2022, we recorded $24.9 million as a reduction of research and development expense for the net reimbursement from BMS. Please see our discussion below in Restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program for additional information for the remaining three quarters of 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2021, we recorded $101.5 million as a reduction of research and development expense for the net reimbursement from BMS.

The timing and amount of our future clinical trial expenses will vary significantly based upon our evaluation of ongoing clinical results and the structure, timing, and scope of additional clinical development programs and potential clinical collaboration partnerships (if any) for these programs.

In addition to our drug candidates that we plan to evaluate in clinical development during 2023 and beyond, we believe it is vitally important to continue our substantial investment in a pipeline of new drug candidates to continue to build the value of our drug candidate pipeline and our business. Our discovery research organization is identifying new drug candidates across a wide range of molecule classes, including small molecules and large proteins, peptides and antibodies. We also plan from time to time to evaluate opportunities to in-license potential drug candidates from third parties to add to our drug discovery and

development pipeline. We plan to continue to advance our most promising early research drug candidates into preclinical development with the objective to advance these early stage research programs to human clinical studies over the next several years.

Our expenditures on current and future preclinical and clinical development programs are subject to numerous uncertainties in timing and cost to completion. In order to advance our drug candidates through clinical development, each drug candidate must be tested in numerous preclinical safety, toxicology and efficacy studies. We then conduct clinical studies for our drug candidates that take several years to complete. The cost and time required to complete clinical trials may vary significantly over the life of a clinical development program as a result of a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

•the number of patients required for a given clinical study design;

•the length of time required to enroll clinical study participants;

•the number and location of sites included in the clinical studies;

•the clinical study designs required by the health authorities (i.e. primary and secondary endpoints as well as the size of the study population needed to demonstrate efficacy and safety outcomes);

•the potential for changing standards of care for the target patient population;

•the competition for patient recruitment from competitive drug candidates being studied in the same clinical setting;

•the costs of producing supplies of the drug candidates needed for clinical trials and regulatory submissions;

•the safety and efficacy profile of the drug candidate;

•the use of clinical research organizations to assist with the management of the trials; and

•the costs and timing of, and the ability to secure, approvals from government health authorities.

Furthermore, our strategy includes the potential of entering into collaborations with third parties to participate in the development and commercialization of some of our drug candidates such as the collaboration that we have already completed for rezpegaldesleukin, or clinical collaborations where we would share costs and operational responsibility with a partner. In certain situations, the clinical development program and process for a drug candidate and the estimated completion date will largely be under the control of that third party and not under our control. We cannot forecast with any degree of certainty which of our drug candidates will be subject to future collaborations or how such arrangements would affect our development plans or capital requirements.

General and administrative expense (in thousands, except percentages)

General and administrative expense includes the cost of administrative staffing, pre-commercial (before the termination of the bempegaldesleukin program), finance and legal activities. As discussed in Note 11 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, we have implemented our 2022 Restructuring Plan to reduce our workforce by approximately 70%. As a result of our 2022 Restructuring Plan, the commercial organization was eliminated and all other bempegaldesleukin-related pre-commercialization activities ceased. We report severance and benefit costs for the terminated employees in restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. Accordingly, general and administrative expense decreased for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared with the year ended December 31, 2021. We expect general and administrative expense to decrease in 2023 as compared to 2022 due to the termination of the bempegaldesleukin commercial program and reduction in force.

Restructuring, Impairment and Other Costs of Terminated Program (in thousands, except percentages)

As discussed in Note 11 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, following the announcements in March and April 2022 that our registrational trials in bempegaldesleukin failed to meet their primary endpoints, on April 25, 2022, we announced strategic reorganization and cost restructuring plans (together, the 2022 Restructuring Plan) to prioritize key Phase 2 development programs, to advance our early stage research pipeline and to reduce our workforce by approximately 70% from approximately 735 to approximately 225 employees. The following table presents the components of restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program, as further described and disclosed in Note 11 to our Consolidated Financial Statements (in thousands):

Severance and benefit expense 30,904

Impairment of right-of-use assets and property, plant and equipment 65,761

Contract termination and other restructuring costs 10,898

Restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program $ 135,930

For nine-month period ended December 31, 2022, we recorded a reduction of expense of $20.8 million for the net reimbursement from BMS, primarily for clinical trial expense, other third-party and employee costs for the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program. We will continue to recognize expenses in future periods for the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program, but we expect these expenses to be significantly lower in 2023 as compared to 2022. For the impairment of right-of-use assets, we will continue to update our estimates based on changes in market conditions, whether or not we are able to enter into subleases and, if we do enter into subleases, the economic terms of those subleases, and we may record impairment charges in future periods as these estimates change. We do not expect to recognize any further severance and benefit expense in connection with the 2022 Restructuring Plan, and we do not expect to recognize significant contract termination and other restructuring costs in 2023.

Change in Fair Value of Development Derivative Liability (in thousands except percentages)

(1) Percentage change represents a gain on the termination of the derivative.

As discussed in Note 6 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, we remeasured the development derivative liability under our co-development agreement with SFJ to fair value at each reporting date. As of March 31, 2022, due to the results of the bempegaldesleukin trial in metastatic melanoma, we concluded that it was remote that SFJ and we would continue the clinical trial in head and neck cancer. Accordingly, we reduced the liability to zero as of March 31, 2022 and recognized a corresponding gain in the change in fair value of development derivative liability. The agreement was subsequently terminated in May 2022.

The expense recorded for the change in fair value for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily reflected the accretion of our obligation to potentially pay Success Payments to SFJ using our imputed borrowing rate.

Non-Cash Royalty Revenue, Non-Cash Interest Expense and Loss on Revaluation of Liability (in thousands, except percentages)

As discussed in Note 7 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, we recognize non-cash royalty revenue and non-cash interest expense for the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement and the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement.

Non-cash royalty revenue decreased for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to lower net sales of the drug products for which we are entitled to royalties. Non-cash interest expense decreased significantly for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to the decrease in the effective interest rate for the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement.

2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement

Non-cash royalty revenue for the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement resulting from net sales of CIMZIA® and MIRCERA® for the year ended December 31, 2022 decreased as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 due to a decrease in the net sales of CIMZIA® and MIRCERA®. Non-cash interest expense for the 2012 Purchase and Sales Agreement decreased significantly for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 due to the lower effective interest rate as a result of the revaluation of the liability.

As discussed in Note 7 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, to resolve UCB's challenges to our patents and their resulting obligation to pay us the royalties on net sales of CIMZIA® which we had sold to RPI, RPI and UCB negotiated a reduction in the royalty term and decreased royalty rates over the remaining term, which was implemented through the Settlement Agreement between UCB and us in October 2021. As a result of accounting for the Settlement Agreement as a debt modification, we remeasured the liability to fair value based on the present value of the royalty payments to RPI after the modification, discounted at a rate of 16%. The recognition of the loss on the revaluation has no effect on our cash flows, and the net income statement effect over the term of 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement remains unchanged.

Over the term of this arrangement, the net proceeds of the transaction of $114.0 million, consisting of the original proceeds of $124.0 million, net of $10.0 million in payments from us to RPI, is amortized as the difference between the non-cash royalty revenue and the sum of the non-cash interest expense and the loss on the revaluation of the liability. To date, we have amortized $58.8 million of the net proceeds. There are a number of factors that could materially affect our estimated interest rate, in particular, the amount and timing of royalty payments from future net sales of CIMZIA® and MIRCERA®. After the modification, we continue to periodically assess future non-cash royalty revenues, and we will adjust any such change in our estimated interest rate prospectively based on our best estimates of future non-cash royalty revenue such that future non-cash interest expense will amortize the remaining $55.2 million of the net proceeds, since all changes in the royalties are absorbed by RPI. As of December 31, 2022, our prospective estimated interest rate is 10%.

Before the modification, we had increased our forecasts of future non-cash royalties at various intervals, primarily due to sales of CIMZIA® exceeding previous expectations. Due to these increases in estimated future royalties, we increased the prospective effective interest rate from 17% at inception to 48% as of the modification date. In connection with the modification and the reduction in the royalty rate and the royalty term, the net present value of the modified royalty stream, discounted at the fair market value discount rate of 16%, is higher than the prior liability balance. The difference of $23.5 million was reported as a loss on the revaluation of the liability. We also wrote off the remaining $0.9 million of unamortized transaction costs.

2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement

Non-cash royalty revenue and non-cash interest expense for the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement decreased for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. The decrease in non-cash royalty revenue reflects net decreases in the net sales of the underlying drug products, and the decrease in non-cash interest expense reflects the lower liability balance as it is amortized over the remaining life of the arrangement.

The 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement provides for a capped return sale arrangement under which the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement will automatically expire, and HCR’s right to receive the sold royalties will cease when HCR has received payments equaling $210.0 million (the 2025 Threshold), if the 2025 Threshold is achieved on or prior to December 31, 2025, or $240.0 million, if the 2025 Threshold is not achieved on or prior to December 31, 2025. Our estimate of the imputed interest rate reflects our best estimates of future royalties to achieve the respective cap. As of December 31, 2022, our prospective estimated interest rate is 20%.

Interest Income and Other Income (Expense), net (in thousands, except percentages)

Interest income and other income (expense), net $ 6,667 $ 2,569 $ 4,098 >100%

Interest income and other income (expense), net increased for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, primarily due to increases in market interest rates, which was partially offset by lower investment balances as we have utilized our cash to fund our operations. We expect that our interest income and other income (expense), net will increase for 2023 compared to 2022 due to the anticipated continued higher interest rates.

Income Tax Expense (in thousands, except percentages)

For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, our income tax expense primarily results from our foreign operations. For the year ended December 31, 2022, our expense primarily represents taxes associated with our decision to close our research and development operations in India, including income taxes on the gain on the sale of the facility and estimated withholding taxes on the repatriation of the funds from India. Due to our expected net loss in 2023, we expect income tax expense to be lower for 2023 as compared to 2022.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We have financed our operations primarily through revenue from upfront and milestone payments under our strategic collaboration agreements, royalties and product sales, as well as public and private placements of debt and equity securities. As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $505.0 million in cash and investments in marketable securities.

We estimate that we have working capital to fund our current business plans for at least the next twelve months from the date of filing.

We expect the clinical development of our drug candidates, including rezpegaldesleukin and NKTR-255, will continue to require significant investment to continue to advance in clinical development with the objective of obtaining regulatory approval or entering into one or more collaboration partnerships. In the past, we have received a number of significant payments from collaboration agreements and other significant transactions, including $1.9 billion in total consideration received under our arrangement with BMS, development cost reimbursements from BMS, and a $150.0 million upfront payment from Lilly for our collaboration agreement for rezpegaldesleukin. In the future, we have the opportunity to receive up to $250.0 million in milestone payments under our collaboration agreement with Lilly.

Our current business is subject to significant uncertainties and risks as a result of, among other factors, clinical and regulatory outcomes for rezpegaldesleukin and NKTR-255; the sales levels for those products (for both wholly owned products such as NKTR-255 and for licensed products such as rezpegaldesleukin for which we are entitled to royalties), if and when they are approved; whether, when and on what terms we are able to enter into new collaboration transactions; expenses being higher than anticipated; unplanned expenses and the need to satisfy contingent liabilities, including litigation matters and indemnification obligations; and cash receipts, including sublease income, being lower than anticipated.

We have no credit facility or any other sources of committed capital. The availability and terms of various financing alternatives, if required in the future, substantially depend on many factors including the success or failure of drug development programs in our pipeline. The availability and terms of financing alternatives and any future significant payments from existing or new collaborations depend on the positive outcome of ongoing or planned clinical studies, whether we or our partners are successful in obtaining regulatory authority approvals in major markets, and if approved, the commercial success of these drugs, as well as general capital market conditions. We may pursue various financing alternatives to fund the expansion of our business as appropriate.

As a result of our 2022 Restructuring Plan, we have executed subleases for a portion of our excess laboratory spaces and are seeking to sublease additional laboratory and office space. For our vacant office space on Third St., however, there is significant uncertainty as to whether or when we will be able to enter into a sublease as well as the economic terms of such subleases, if any. The San Francisco Bay Area office lease market has been negatively impacted by economic uncertainties, particularly impacting the technology industry, and the change in work habits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as employees continue to work remotely.

Due to the potential for adverse developments in the credit markets, we may experience reduced liquidity with respect to some of our investments in marketable securities. These investments are generally held to maturity, which, in accordance with our investment policy, is less than two years. However, if the need arises to liquidate such securities before maturity, we may experience losses on liquidation. To date we have not experienced any liquidity issues with respect to these securities. We believe that, even allowing for potential liquidity issues with respect to these securities and the effect of various conditions on the financial markets, our remaining cash and investments in marketable securities will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next twelve months.

Prior to the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we had an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement) on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 2021 Shelf Registration Statement permitted the offering, issuance and sale by us of up to an aggregate offering price of $300.0 million of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants in one or more offerings and in any combination, all of which could be offered, issued and sold in “at-the-market” sales pursuant to an equity distribution agreement with Cowen and Company, LLC (the Equity Distribution Agreement). No securities were sold under the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement or the Equity Distribution Agreement.Because we are no longer a well-known seasoned issuer, the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement will no longer be available for us to offer and sell securities pursuant to the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement following the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Cash flows from operating activities

Cash flows used in operating activities for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 totaled $304.0 million and $412.7 million, respectively.

We expect that cash flows used in operating activities, excluding upfront, milestone and other contingent payments received, if any, will decrease for 2023 as compared to 2022 because we do not expect any further costs for the wind down of the bempegaldesleukin program and the various cost restructuring activities described above to be significant.

Cash flows from investing activities

During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, the maturities and sales of our investments, net of purchases, totaled $358.3 million and $217.8 million, respectively, which we used to fund our operations. Our maturities and sales of investments, net of purchases were lower during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, because we purchased securities in early 2021, utilizing the $150.0 million in proceeds from the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement that were included in cash equivalents at December 31, 2020.

We paid $5.7 million and $15.0 million for the purchase or construction of property, plant and equipment in the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. We also received $13.2 million from the sales of property, plant and equipment, primarily from the sale of our research and development facility in India.

Cash flows from financing activities

We received proceeds from issuance of common stock related to our employee option and stock purchase plans of $0.8 million and $33.2 million in the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Additionally, during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we received $0.8 million and $3.0 million, respectively, from SFJ pursuant to our co-development agreement.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation and presentation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period.

We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form our basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates on an ongoing basis. Actual results may differ from those estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We have determined that, for the periods in this report, the following accounting policies and estimates are critical in understanding our financial condition and the results of our operations.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

As discussed in Note 11, in connection with our 2022 Restructuring Plan, we have consolidated our San Francisco operations in our Mission Bay Facility, and we have vacated our Third St. Facility and certain laboratory and office spaces at our Mission Bay Facility. We are seeking to sublease the vacated spaces, while still maintaining sufficient office and laboratory space to allow our team to develop our proprietary programs. As a result, we reviewed each of our vacated spaces for impairment as of May 31, 2022, when management had determined which spaces we would seek to sublease, and subsequently at each reporting date or as facts and circumstances changed. As part of our impairment evaluation of each vacated space, we separately compared the estimated undiscounted income to the net book value of the related long-term assets, which include right-of-use assets and certain property, plant and equipment, primarily leasehold improvements (collectively, sublease assets). We estimated sublease income using market participant assumptions, including the length of time to enter into a sublease and sublease payments, which we evaluated using sublease negotiations or agreements when applicable, current real estate trends and market conditions. If such income exceeded the net book value of the related assets, we did not record an impairment charge. Otherwise, we recorded an impairment charge by reducing the net book value of the assets to their estimated fair value, which we determined by discounting the estimated sublease cash flows using the estimated borrowing rate of a market participant subtenant, which we estimated to be 6.4% and 7.9% as of May 31, 2022 and December 31, 2022, respectively. Determination of these key assumptions is complex and highly judgmental.

For certain impairment charges, we used the terms of active sublease negotiations or agreements to estimate sublease income. However, for our facility at 360 Third. St., which represents the substantial majority of our impairment charges for the year ended December 31, 2022, we developed our estimates of the time to enter into a sublease and sublease payments, including estimated free rent periods, based on current real estate trends and market conditions. Accordingly, if our estimates for the time to enter the sublease and estimated free rent periods were longer (shorter), the impairment charge would be higher (lower), and if our estimates for the rental rates were lower (higher), the impairment charge would be higher (lower). Given the current office lease market rental conditions in San Francisco and the larger Bay Area, our estimates are subject to significant uncertainty. The ultimate amount of sublease income may be significantly lower or higher than the amounts used to record our impairment charges, and we may record additional impairment charges in future periods as our estimates change or when we enter into sublease negotiations or execute a sublease agreement.

Collaborative Arrangements

When we enter into collaboration agreements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, we assess whether the arrangements fall within the scope of Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 808, Collaborative Arrangements (ASC 808) based on whether the arrangements involve joint operating activities and whether both parties have active participation in the

arrangement and are exposed to significant risks and rewards. To the extent that the arrangement falls within the scope of ASC 808, we assess whether the payments between us and our collaboration partner fall within the scope of other accounting literature. If we conclude that payments from the collaboration partner to us represent consideration from a customer, such as license fees and contract research and development activities, we account for those payments within the scope of ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. However, if we conclude that our collaboration partner is not a customer for certain activities and associated payments, such as for certain collaborative research, development, manufacturing and commercial activities, we record such payments as a reduction of research and development expense or general and administrative expense, based on where we record the underlying expense.

We have concluded that our collaboration agreements with BMS and Lilly fall within the scope of ASC 808. We concluded that the upfront and milestone payments under these arrangements fall within the scope of ASC 606 and therefore recognize these payments as revenue in license, collaboration and other revenue. However, due to the collaborative nature of our joint development and commercialization of bempegaldesleukin, we recognize the reimbursements we receive from BMS for their share of the costs that we incur for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of bempegaldesleukin as a reduction of research and development expense; general and administrative expense; or restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program, as applicable.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize license, collaboration and other research revenue, including the upfront fees and milestone payments based on the facts and circumstances of each contractual agreement. At the inception of each agreement, we determine which promises represent distinct performance obligations, for which management must use significant judgment. Additionally, at inception and at each reporting date thereafter, we must determine and update, as appropriate, the transaction price, which includes variable consideration such as development and commercial launch milestones. We must use judgment to determine when to include the variable consideration for these milestones in the transaction price such that inclusion of such variable consideration will not result in a significant reversal of revenue recognized when the contingency surrounding the variable consideration is resolved. To date, we have not included the milestones from Lilly in the transaction price due to the significant uncertainties involved with clinical development and regulatory approval. We generally do not believe that we would update the transaction price before events that are outside of our control occur, such as the release of clinical trial results, regulatory acceptance of a BLA or similar filing or regulatory approval. However, if these results are positive, we may conclude that certain milestones meet the recognition requirements for inclusion in the transaction price and therefore we would recognize them as revenue before the milestone event occurs and the payment becomes due to us, provided that the achievement of the milestone is within our control.

Accrued Clinical Trial Expenses

We record an accrued expense for the estimated unbilled costs of our clinical study activities performed by third parties and significant delays between these expenses being incurred and the timing of vendor submission of invoices to us. The financial terms of these agreements are subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows to our vendors. Payments under the contracts depend on factors such as the achievement of certain events, successful enrollment of patients and completion of certain clinical trial activities. We generally recognize costs associated with the start-up and reporting phases of the clinical trials as incurred. We generally accrue costs associated with the treatment phase of clinical trials based on the estimated activities performed by our third party vendors, including our contract research organizations. We may also accrue expenses based on the total estimated cost of the treatment phase on a per patient basis and expense the per patient cost ratably over the estimated patient treatment period. In specific circumstances, such as for certain time-based costs, we recognize clinical trial expenses ratably over the service period, as we believe that this methodology may be more reflective of the timing of costs incurred.

We base our estimates on the best information available at the time. However, additional information may become available to us which may allow us to make a more accurate estimate in future periods. In this event, we may be required to record adjustments to research and development expenses in future periods when the actual level of activity becomes more certain. Such increases or decreases in cost are generally considered to be changes in estimates and will be reflected in research and development expenses in the period identified.

Debt Modification

As discussed in Note 7 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, to resolve UCB’s challenges to our patents and their resulting obligation to pay us the royalties on net sales of CIMZIA® which we had sold to RPI, RPI and UCB negotiated a reduction in the royalty term and decreased royalty rates over the remaining term. This negotiation was implemented through the Letter Agreement between RPI and us, which permitted us to enter into the Settlement Agreement with UCB in October

2021. When we initially sold our rights to receive royalties to RPI, we concluded that we should account for the transaction as debt under ASC 450-10 Debt (ASC 450) due to our continuing involvement in the generation of the royalties due to our obligation to manufacture the polymer reagent purchased by UCB for the production of CIMZIA®. Since this obligation remained unchanged as a result of the Settlement Agreement, we concluded that we should account for the Letter Agreement within the scope of ASC 450.

In our assessment, we concluded that the Letter Agreement represented a modification of the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement, since RPI had agreed to reduced royalty payments. Since our estimates of the present value of the reduction in the future royalties exceeded 10% of our estimates of the present value of the royalties before the modification (including the royalties from MIRCERA® which remain unchanged as a result of these agreements), we concluded that we should treat the modification as an extinguishment of the prior liability and recognize a new liability based on the revised royalty payments and term, discounted to fair value. The estimation of the fair value required us to develop estimates of the future sales of CIMZIA® and MIRCERA® over the remaining royalty terms, as well as to estimate an appropriate discount rate. Since no active, traded markets exist for arrangements of this nature, we concluded that the 2020 Purchase and Sale Arrangement was economically similar enough to the modified 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement to use as a basis for the discount rate because the products under both arrangements are well established drugs and the duration of the arrangements are similar. Accordingly, we utilized our estimated imputed interest rate of 16% from the inception of the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement as the discount rate to estimate the fair value of the modified 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement.

If our estimates of the future royalties to be received by RPI under the modified 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement had been higher or lower, our estimated fair value of the new liability would have been higher or lower as well, resulting in a larger or smaller loss on the revaluation. Similarly, if our estimated discount rate had been lower or higher, the estimated fair value of the liability would have been higher or lower, resulting in a larger or smaller loss on revaluation.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Inflation Risk

We are exposed to the risk of inflation, which has increased significantly during 2022 and may result in increases to our operating expenses.

Interest Rate and Market Risk

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while at the same time maximizing yields without significantly increasing risk. To achieve this objective, we invest in liquid, high quality debt securities. Our investments in debt securities are subject to interest rate risk. To minimize the exposure due to an adverse shift in interest rates, we invest in securities with maturities of two years or less and maintain a weighted average maturity of one year or less.

A hypothetical 50 basis point increase in interest rates would result in an approximate $0.6 million decrease, less than 1%, in the fair value of our available-for-sale securities at December 31, 2022. This potential change is based on sensitivity analyses performed on our investment securities at December 31, 2022. Actual results may differ materially. The same hypothetical 50 basis point increase in interest rates would have resulted in an approximate $1.8 million decrease, less than 1%, in the fair value of our available-for-sale securities at December 31, 2021.

As of December 31, 2022, we held $427.7 million of available-for-sale investments, excluding money market funds, with an average time to maturity of four months. To date we have not experienced any liquidity issues with respect to these securities, but should such issues arise, we may be required to hold some, or all, of these securities until maturity. We believe that, even allowing for potential liquidity issues with respect to these securities, our remaining cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next twelve months. Based on our available cash, the timing of the maturities of our investments and our expected operating cash requirements, we currently do not intend to sell these securities prior to maturity and it is more likely than not that we will not be required to sell these securities before we recover the amortized cost basis.

Foreign Currency Risk

As a result of the sale of our research and development facility in India, we have significant cash and investment balances in India that we intend to repatriate as part of our closure of this entity. We are subject to foreign currency exchange risk until we can repatriate these funds.

The majority of our revenue, expense, and capital purchasing activities are transacted in U.S. dollars. However, we have contracts with contract manufacturing organizations in Europe and incur costs from sites in a variety of international locations which are paid in their respective local currencies. Additionally, until the closure and sale of our research and

development facility in India, a portion of our operations consisted of research and development activities outside the United States, with transactions in the Indian Rupee. Accordingly, we are subject to foreign currency exchange risk for these transactions.

Our international operations are subject to risks typical of international operations, including, but not limited to, differing economic conditions, changes in political climate, differing tax structures, other regulations and restrictions, and foreign exchange rate volatility. We do not utilize derivative financial instruments to manage our exchange rate risks. We do not believe that inflation has had a material adverse impact on our revenues or operations in any of the past three years.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Page

Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID: 42) 57

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 67

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Nektar Therapeutics

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Nektar Therapeutics (the Company) as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2022 and 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated February 28, 2023 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

Accounting for accrued research and development expenses

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1993.

San Mateo, California

February 28, 2023

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Nektar Therapeutics

Opinion on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited Nektar Therapeutics’ internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, Nektar Therapeutics (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022, and the related notes and our report dated February 28, 2023 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

San Mateo, California

February 28, 2023

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except par value information)

December 31,

ASSETS

Current assets:

Long-term investments — 64,828

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Current liabilities:

Operating lease liabilities, current portion 18,667 17,441

Operating lease liabilities, less current portion 112,829 125,736

Development derivative liability — 27,726

Liabilities related to the sales of future royalties, net 155,378 195,427

Commitments and contingencies

Stockholders’ equity:

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (6,907) (4,157)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(In thousands, except per share information)

Year Ended December 31,

Revenue:

Royalty revenue — — 30,999

Operating costs and expenses:

Restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program 135,930 — 45,189

Non-operating income (expense):

Change in fair value of development derivative liability 33,427 (8,023) —

Interest income and other income (expense), net 6,667 2,569 18,282

Interest expense — — (6,851)

Basic and diluted net loss per share $ (1.97) $ (2.86) $ (2.49)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(In thousands)

Year Ended December 31,

Other comprehensive income (loss):

Net foreign currency translation gain (loss) (1,636) (294) (363)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

(In thousands)

Shares issued under equity compensation plans 3,092 — 758 — — 758

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)

Year Ended December 31,

Cash flows from operating activities:

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

Change in fair value of development derivative liability (33,427) 8,023 —

Non-cash research and development expense 4,951 16,703 —

Impairment of right-of-use asset and property, plant and equipment 65,761 — —

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

Cash flows from investing activities:

Purchases of property, plant and equipment (5,676) (14,989) (7,258)

Sales of property, plant and equipment 13,196 — —

Cash flows from financing activities:

Repayment of senior notes — — (250,000)

Cash receipts from development derivative liability 750 3,000 —

Proceeds from shares issued under equity compensation plans 758 33,238 23,396

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 1,508 36,238 (80,354)

Effect of foreign exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents (327) (92) 20

Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:

Cash paid for interest $ — $ — $ 9,742

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Table of Contents

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

December 31, 2022

Note 1 — Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Organization

We are a research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Francisco, California and incorporated in Delaware. We are developing a pipeline of drug candidates that utilize our advanced polymer conjugate technology platforms, which are designed to enable the development of new molecular entities that target known mechanisms of action. Our research and development pipeline of new investigational drugs includes innovative medicines in the field of immunotherapy.

Our research and development activities have required significant ongoing investment to date and are expected to continue to require significant investment. As a result, we expect to continue to incur substantial losses and negative cash flows from operations in the future. We have financed our operations primarily through cash generated from licensing, collaboration and manufacturing agreements and financing transactions. At December 31, 2022, we had approximately $505.0 million in cash and investments in marketable securities.

Results of Bempegaldesleukin Program and the 2022 Restructuring Plan

In March and April 2022, we announced the unsuccessful results from our clinical trials studying bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® under our Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS). Based on these results, we decided to discontinue all of our ongoing clinical trials of bempegaldesleukin in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In April 2022, we also announced new strategic reorganization and cost restructuring plans (together, the 2022 Restructuring Plan) for the Company’s future:

•On March 14, 2022, BMS and we announced that the registrational trial for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® in metastatic melanoma did not meet its primary endpoints and that BMS and we decided to discontinue the registrational trials in metastatic melanoma and adjuvant melanoma. See Note 10 for additional information on our BMS Collaboration Agreement.

•On April 14, 2022, we announced that each of our registrational trials for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® in renal cell carcinoma and in cisplatin-ineligible, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer did not meet their respective primary endpoints. Due to these results, BMS and we decided to discontinue these studies and all other ongoing studies for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo®.

•On April 14, 2022, we announced that, in consultation with SFJ Pharmaceuticals and based upon a recommendation from an independent Data Monitoring Committee, we decided to discontinue our Phase 2/3 study in bempegaldesleukin in combination with Keytruda® in patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent squamous cell cancer of the head and neck under our Co-Development Agreement with SFJ Pharmaceuticals. See Note 6 for additional information regarding our Co-Development Agreement with SFJ Pharmaceuticals.

•We also announced on April 14, 2022, the discontinuation of our Phase 1/2 PROPEL study of bempegaldesleukin in combination with Keytruda® in locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer. With these announcements on April 14, 2022, subject to activities required for an orderly wind down of the studies, there will be no ongoing clinical development activities of bempegaldesleukin.

•On April 25, 2022, we announced our 2022 Restructuring Plan, which was reviewed and approved by our Board of Directors on April 14, 2022. Pursuant to the 2022 Restructuring Plan, on April 26, 2022, our duly authorized officers implemented certain strategic, operational and organizational steps, including the prioritization of key Phase 2 development programs to advance our early stage research pipeline. In addition, we announced our plan to reduce our workforce by approximately 70% and to close our research facility in India.

We have incurred significant costs resulting from these decisions and plans. See Note 11 for additional information on the effect of the 2022 Restructuring Plan on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Basis of Presentation, Principles of Consolidation and Use of Estimates

Our Consolidated Financial Statements include the financial position, results of operations and cash flows of our wholly-owned subsidiaries. We have eliminated all intercompany accounts and transactions in consolidation.

Table of Contents

Our Consolidated Financial Statements are denominated in U.S. dollars. Accordingly, changes in exchange rates between the applicable foreign currency and the U.S. dollar will affect the translation of each foreign subsidiary’s financial results into U.S. dollars for purposes of reporting our consolidated financial results. We include translation gains and losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss in the stockholders’ equity section of our Consolidated Balance Sheets. To date, such cumulative currency translation adjustments have not been significant to our consolidated financial position.

Our comprehensive loss consists of our net loss plus our foreign currency translation gains and losses and unrealized holding gains and losses on available-for-sale securities. There were no significant reclassifications out of accumulated other comprehensive loss to the statements of operations during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Accounting estimates and assumptions are inherently uncertain. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates and assumptions. Our estimates include those related to the selling prices of performance obligations and amounts of variable consideration in collaboration agreements, royalty revenue, and other assumptions required for revenue recognition as described further below; the net realizable value of inventory; the fair value and impairment of investments, goodwill and long-lived assets; contingencies, accrued clinical trial, contract manufacturing and other expenses; income taxes; non-cash royalty revenue and non-cash interest expense from our liabilities related to our sales of future royalties; assumptions used in the valuation of our development derivative liability as further described in Note 6; our assumptions used in stock-based compensation; and ongoing litigation, among other estimates. We base our estimates on historical experience and on other assumptions that management believes are reasonable under the circumstances. These estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities when these values are not readily apparent from other sources. As appropriate, we assess estimates each period, update them to reflect current information, and will generally reflect any changes in estimates in the period first identified.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The recorded amounts of certain financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable and accrued liabilities approximate their fair values due to their relatively short maturities. We record available-for-sale investments and cash equivalents at their estimated fair values, which are based on market prices from a variety of industry standard data providers and generally represent quoted prices for similar assets in active markets or have been derived from observable market data. As further described in Note 11, we estimated the fair value of our lease assets for recognizing impairment charges based on management’s estimates of several unobservable inputs, including estimated time to enter a sublease, sublease rental rates and free rent periods. As further described in Note 6, we recorded the development derivative liability at its estimated fair value based on management’s estimates of several unobservable inputs, including the probabilities of success of clinical trials and various other inputs.

The fair value of our financial assets and liabilities are determined in accordance with the fair value hierarchy established in ASC 820-10, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures (ASC 820). ASC 820 defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. The fair value hierarchy of ASC Topic 820 requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs when measuring fair value and classifies those inputs into three levels:

Level 1 — Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2 — Inputs other than Level 1 that are observable, either directly or indirectly, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, there were no transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy.

Level 3 — Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Investments in Marketable Securities

We consider all investments in marketable securities with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. We classify investments in securities with remaining maturities of less than one year, or where our intent

Table of Contents

is to use the investments to fund current operations or to make them available for current operations, as short-term investments. We classify investments in securities with remaining maturities of over one year as long-term investments.

Our cash and investments are held or issued by financial institutions that management believes are of high credit quality. However, they are exposed to credit risk in the event of default by the third parties that hold or issue such assets. Our investment policy limits investments to fixed income securities denominated and payable in U.S. dollars such as corporate bonds, corporate commercial paper, U.S. government obligations, and money market funds and places restrictions on maturities and concentrations by type and issuer.

For our available-for-sale securities, we have significant concentrations of issuers in the banking and financial services industry. While our investment policy requires that we only invest in highly-rated securities and limit our exposure to any single issuer, a variety of factors may materially affect the financial condition of issuers. Additionally, pursuant to our investment policy, we may sell securities before maturity if the issuer’s credit rating has been downgraded below our minimum credit rating requirements, which may result in a loss on the sale. Accordingly, if factors result in downgrades below our minimum credit rating requirements and if we decide to sell these securities, we may experience losses on such sales.

Investments are designated as available-for-sale and are carried at fair value with unrealized gains and losses reported in stockholders’ equity as accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). We review our portfolio of available-for-sale debt securities, using both quantitative and qualitative factors, to determine if declines in fair value below amortized cost have resulted from a credit-related loss or other factors. If the decline in fair value is due to credit-related factors, we recognize a loss in our Consolidated Statement of Operations, whereas if the decline in fair value is not due to credit-related factors, we recognize the loss in other comprehensive income (loss).

We include coupon interest on securities classified as available-for-sale, as well as amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts to maturity, in interest income. The cost of securities sold is based on the specific identification method.

Accounts Receivable and Significant Customer Concentrations

Our customers are primarily pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are primarily located in the U.S. and Europe and with whom we have multi-year arrangements. Our accounts receivable balance contains billed and unbilled trade receivables from product sales, milestones (to the extent that they have been achieved and are due from the counterparty), other contingent payments, as well as reimbursable costs from collaborative research and development agreements. Our accounts receivable included $4.2 million and $21.4 million for unbilled net expense reimbursements from our collaboration partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. The remaining accounts receivable related primarily to product sales. We perform a regular review of our partners’ credit risk and payment histories when circumstances warrant, including payments made subsequent to year-end. When appropriate, we provide for an allowance for doubtful accounts by reserving for specifically identified doubtful accounts, although historically we have not experienced credit losses from our accounts receivable.

Inventory and Significant Supplier Concentrations

We generally manufacture inventory upon receipt of firm purchase orders from our collaboration partners, and we may manufacture certain intermediate work-in-process materials and purchase raw materials based on purchase forecasts from our collaboration partners. Inventory includes direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead, and we determine cost on a first-in, first-out basis for raw materials and on a specific identification basis for work-in-process and finished goods. We value inventory at the lower of cost or net realizable value, and we write down defective or excess inventory to net realizable value based on historical experience or projected usage. We expense inventory related to our research and development activities when we purchase or manufacture it.

We are dependent on our suppliers and contract manufacturers to provide raw materials and drugs of appropriate quality and reliability and to meet applicable contract and regulatory requirements. In certain cases, we rely on single sources of supply of one or more critical materials. Consequently, in the event that supplies are delayed or interrupted for any reason, our ability to develop and produce our drug candidates, our ability to supply comparator drugs for our clinical trials, or our ability to meet our supply obligations could be significantly impaired, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Restructuring

We recognize restructuring charges related to reorganization plans that have been committed to by management when liabilities have been incurred. In connection with these activities, we record restructuring charges at fair value for:

Table of Contents

•contractual employee termination benefits provided that the obligations result from services already rendered based on vested rights to such benefits when the payment of benefits becomes probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated;

•one-time employee termination benefits on the communication date from management to the employees provided that management has committed to a plan of termination, the plan identifies the employees and their expected termination dates, the details of termination benefits are complete, and it is unlikely that changes to the plan will be made or the plan will be withdrawn;

•contract termination costs when we cancel the contract in accordance with its terms; and

•costs to be incurred over the remaining contract term without economic benefit to us at the cease-use date.

For one-time employee terminations benefits, we recognize the liability in full on the communication date when future services are not required or amortize the liability ratably over the service period, if required. The fair value of termination benefits reflects our estimates of expected utilization of certain Company-funded post-employment benefits.

See Note 11 for additional information on the severance expense that we recognized for employees terminated in connection with our 2022 Restructuring Plan.

Long-Lived Assets

We report property, plant and equipment at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. We capitalize major improvements and expense maintenance and repairs as incurred. We generally recognize depreciation on a straight-line basis. We depreciate manufacturing, laboratory and other equipment over their estimated useful lives of generally three to ten years, depreciate buildings over the estimated useful life of generally twenty years and amortize leasehold improvements over the shorter of the estimated useful lives or the remaining term of the related lease.

Goodwill represents the excess of the price paid for another entity over the fair value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination. We are organized in one reporting unit and evaluate the goodwill for the Company as a whole. Goodwill has an indefinite useful life and is not amortized, but instead tested for impairment at least annually in the fourth quarter of each year using an October 1 measurement date.

We assess the impairment of long-lived assets whenever events or changes in business circumstances indicate that the carrying amounts of the assets may not be fully recoverable. In the case of property, plant and equipment and right-of-use assets for our leases, we determine whether there has been an impairment by comparing the carrying value of the asset to the anticipated undiscounted net cash flows associated with the asset. If such cash flows are less than the carrying value, we write down the asset to its fair value, which may be measured as anticipated discounted net cash flows associated with the asset. In the case of goodwill impairment, we compare the carrying value of the reporting unit to its fair value, which we generally measure using market capitalization for our single reporting unit. If an impairment exists, we write down goodwill such that the carrying value of the reporting unit equals its fair value.

See Note 11 for additional information on the long-lived asset impairment expense that we recognized in connection with our 2022 Restructuring Plan.

Leases

We determine if an arrangement contains a lease at the inception of the arrangement. Right-of-use assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term, and lease liabilities represent our obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. We recognize operating lease right-of-use assets and liabilities at the lease commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the expected lease term. In determining the present value of lease payments, we use our incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the lease commencement date. We have elected the practical expedient to account for the lease and non-lease components, such as common area maintenance charges, as a single lease component for our facilities leases, and elected the short-term lease recognition exemption for our short-term leases, under which we do not recognize lease liabilities and right-of-use assets for leases with an original term of twelve months or less.

Our expected lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise any such options. We recognize lease expense for our operating leases on a straight-line basis over the expected lease term. We have elected to recognize lease incentives, such as tenant improvement allowances, at the lease commencement date as a reduction of the right-of-use asset and lease liability until paid to us by the lessor to the extent that the lease provides a

Table of Contents

specified fixed or maximum level of reimbursement and we are reasonably certain to incur reimbursable costs at least equaling such amounts.

Please see Note 5 for additional information regarding our leases.

Collaborative Arrangements

We enter into collaboration arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology collaboration partners, under which we may grant licenses to our collaboration partners to further develop and commercialize one of our drug candidates, either alone or in combination with the collaboration partners’ compounds, or grant licenses to partners to use our technology to research and develop their own drug candidates. We may also perform research, development, manufacturing and supply activities under our collaboration agreements. Consideration under these contracts may include an upfront payment, development and regulatory milestones and other contingent payments, expense reimbursements, royalties based on net sales of approved drugs, and commercial sales milestone payments. Additionally, these contracts may provide options for the customer to purchase our proprietary PEGylation materials, drug candidates or additional contract research and development services under separate contracts.

When we enter into collaboration agreements, we assess whether the arrangements fall within the scope of ASC 808, Collaborative Arrangements (ASC 808) based on whether the arrangements involve joint operating activities and whether both parties have active participation in the arrangement and are exposed to significant risks and rewards of the arrangement. To the extent that the arrangement falls within the scope of ASC 808, we assess whether the payments between us and our collaboration partner fall within the scope of other accounting literature. If we conclude that payments from the collaboration partner to us represent consideration from a customer, such as license fees and contract research and development activities, we account for those payments within the scope of ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606). However, if we conclude that our collaboration partner is not a customer for certain activities and associated payments, such as for certain collaborative research, development, manufacturing and commercial activities, we present such payments as a reduction of research and development expense or general and administrative expense, based on where we present the underlying expense.

Revenue Recognition

For elements of those arrangements that we determine should be accounted for under ASC 606, we assess which activities in our collaboration agreements are performance obligations that should be accounted for separately and determine the transaction price of the arrangement, which includes the assessment of the probability of achievement of future milestones and other potential consideration. For arrangements that include multiple performance obligations, such as granting a license or performing contract research and development activities or participation on joint steering or other committees, we allocate upfront and milestone payments under a relative standalone selling price method. Accordingly, we develop assumptions that require judgment to determine the standalone selling price for each performance obligation identified in the contract. These key assumptions may include revenue forecasts, clinical development timelines and costs, discount rates and probabilities of clinical and regulatory success.

Product sales

Product sales are primarily derived from manufacturing and supply agreements with our customers. We have assessed our current manufacturing and supply arrangements and have generally determined that they provide the customer an option to purchase our proprietary PEGylation materials. Accordingly, we treat each purchase order as a discrete exercise of the customer’s option (i.e. a separate contract) rather than as a component of the overall arrangement. The pricing for the manufacturing and supply is generally at a fixed price and may be subject to annual producer price index (PPI) adjustments. We invoice and recognize product sales when title and risk of loss pass to the customer, which generally occurs upon shipment. Customer payments are generally due 30 days from receipt of an invoice. We test our products for adherence to technical specifications before shipment; accordingly, we have not experienced any significant returns from our customers. We recognize costs related to shipping and handling of product to customers in cost of goods sold.

Royalty revenue, including Non-cash royalty revenue

Generally, for our collaboration arrangements that include sales-based royalties, we have granted our collaboration partner a license to our intellectual property. Pursuant to these arrangements, our collaboration partners are typically obligated to pay a royalty that is based on the net sales of their approved drugs that are sold in the countries where we have intellectual property rights covering their drugs. We have sold our rights to receive sales-based royalties for CIMZIA®, MIRCERA®, MOVANTIK®, ADYNOVATE® and REBINYN® as further described in Note 7. For collaboration arrangements that include sales-based royalties, we have concluded that the license is the predominant item to which the royalties relate, which include

Table of Contents

commercial milestone payments based on the level of sales. Accordingly, we recognize royalty revenue when the underlying sales occur based on our best estimates of sales of the drugs. Our aggregate royalty and non-cash royalty revenue of $69.8 million, $77.7 million and $79.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively, represents revenue for granting licenses for which we had satisfied in prior periods. Our partners generally pay royalties or commercial milestones after the end of the calendar quarter in accordance with contractual terms. We present commercial milestone payments within license, collaboration and other revenue.

License, collaboration and other revenue

License Grants: For collaboration arrangements that include a grant of a license to our intellectual property, we consider whether the license grant is distinct from the other performance obligations included in the arrangement. Generally, we would conclude that the license is distinct if the customer is able to benefit from the license with the resources available to it. For licenses that are distinct, we recognize revenues from nonrefundable, upfront payments and other consideration allocated to the license when the license term has begun and we have provided all necessary information regarding the underlying intellectual property to the customer, which generally occurs at or near the inception of the arrangement.

Milestone Payments: At the inception of the arrangement and at each reporting date thereafter, we assess whether we should include any milestone payments or otherforms of variable consideration in the transaction price, based on whether a significant reversal of revenue previously recognized is not probable upon resolution of the uncertainty. Since milestone payments may become payable to us upon the initiation ofa clinical study, filing for or receipt of regulatory approval or the first commercial sale of a product, we review the relevant facts and circumstances to determine when we should update the transaction price, which may occur before the triggering event. When we do update the transaction pricefor milestone payments, we allocate it on a relative standalone selling price basis and record revenue on a cumulative catch-up basis, which results in recognizing revenue for previously satisfied performance obligations in such period. As described further in Note 10, we recognized $50.0 million of milestones in the year ended December 31, 2020 because we had previously satisfied the performance obligation. If we update the transaction price before the triggering event, we recognize the increase in the transaction price as a contract asset. Our partners generally pay development milestonessubsequent toachievement of the triggering event.

Research and Development Services: For amounts allocated to our research and development obligations in a collaboration arrangement, we recognize revenue over time using a proportional performance model, representing the transfer of goods or services as we perform activities over the term of the agreement.

Research and Development Expense

Research and development costs are expensed as incurred and include salaries, benefits and other operating costs such as outside services, supplies and allocated overhead costs. We perform research and development activities for our drug candidates and technology development and for certain third parties under collaboration agreements. For our drug candidates and our internal technology development programs, we invest our own funds without reimbursement from a third party. Where we perform research and development activities under a joint development collaboration, such as our collaboration with BMS, we record the cost reimbursement from our partner as a reduction to research and development expense when reimbursement amounts are due to us under the agreement.

We record an accrued expense for the estimated unbilled costs of our clinical study activities performed by third parties. The financial terms of these agreements are subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows to our vendors. Payments under the contracts depend on factors such as the achievement of certain events, successful enrollment of patients and completion of certain clinical trial activities. We generally recognize costs associated with the start-up and reporting phases of the clinical trials as incurred. We generally accrue costs associated with the treatment phase of clinical trials based on the estimated activities performed by our third party vendors, including our contract research organizations. We may also accrue expenses based on the total estimated cost of the treatment phase on a per patient basis and expense the per patient cost ratably over the estimated patient treatment period. In specific circumstances, such as for certain time-based costs, we recognize clinical trial expenses ratably over the service period, as we believe that this methodology may be more reflective of the timing of costs incurred.

We record an accrued expense for the estimated costs of our contract manufacturing activities performed by third parties. The financial terms of these agreements are subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows to our vendors. Payments under the contracts include upfront payments and milestone payments, which depend on factors such as the achievement of the completion of certain stages of the manufacturing process. For purposes of recognizing expense, we assess whether we consider the production process to be sufficiently defined such that the resulting product can be considered the delivery of a good, as evidenced by predictive or contractually required yields in the production

Table of Contents

process or payment terms based on the actual yield, or the delivery of a service, where processes and yields are developing and less certain. If we consider the process to be the delivery of a good, we recognize expense when the drug product is delivered, or we otherwise bear risk of loss. If we consider the process to be the delivery of a service, we recognize expense based on our best estimates of the contract manufacturer’s progress towards completion of the stages in the contracts. We recognize and amortize upfront payments and accrue liabilities based on the specific terms of each arrangement. Certain arrangements may provide upfront payments for certain stages of the arrangement and milestone payments for the completion of certain stages, and, accordingly, we may record advance payments for services that have not been completed or goods not delivered and liabilities for stages where the contract manufacturer is entitled to a milestone payment.

We capitalize advance payments for goods or services that will be used or rendered for future research and development activities and recognize expense as the related goods are delivered or services performed. We base our estimates on the best information available at the time. However, additional information may become available to us in the future which may allow us to make a more accurate estimate in future periods. In this event, we may be required to record adjustments to research and development expenses in future periods when the actual level of activity becomes more certain. We generally consider such increases or decreases in cost as changes in estimates and reflect them in research and development expenses in the period identified.

Restructuring, Impairment and Other Costs for Terminated Program

Amounts recorded as restructuring, impairment and other costs for terminated program for the year ended December 31, 2022 relate to the termination of the bempegaldesleukin program and the 2022 Restructuring Plan. See Note 11 for additional information.

Amounts recorded as restructuring, impairment and other costs for terminated program for the year ended December 31, 2020 relate to the termination of the NKTR-181 program. On January 14, 2020, the joint FDA Anesthetic Drug Products Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee did not recommend approval of our NDA for NKTR-181. As a result, we withdrew our NDA and wound down Inheris and the NKTR-181 program. As a result, we wrote off $45.2 million, including $19.7 million of advance payments to contract manufacturers for commercial batches of NKTR-181 and $25.5 million of additional costs, primarily for non-cancellable commitments to our contract manufacturers and certain severance costs.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation arrangements include grants of stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), performance stock units (PSUs) under our equity incentive plans, as well as shares issued under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), through which employees may purchase our common stock at a discount to the market price.

We expense the grant date fair value of options, RSUs, PSUs and ESPP shares on a straight-line basis over the requisite service periods in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and recognize forfeitures of options, RSUs and PSUs as they occur. For options and RSUs that vest upon the achievement of performance milestones, we recognize expense provided that we believe that the performance milestones are probable of achievement, and we estimate the vesting period based on our evaluation of the estimated date of achievement of these milestones. For PSUs, we recognize expense based on the grant date fair value regardless of whether the market condition is met. Additionally, we do not adjust the expense based on the number of shares ultimately issued, which may be higher or lower than the grant amount. We report expense amounts in cost of goods sold, research and development expense, and general and administrative expense based on the function of the applicable employee. Stock-based compensation charges are non-cash charges and have no effect on our reported cash flows. We estimate the grant date fair value of our stock-based compensation awards as follows:

•We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model for the respective grant to determine the estimated fair value of the option on the date of grant (grant date fair value) and the estimated fair value of common stock purchased under the ESPP. The Black-Scholes option pricing model requires the input of highly subjective assumptions, including but not limited to, our stock price volatility over the term of the awards, and actual and projected employee stock option exercise behaviors.

•The number of shares issuable under PSUs is based on our total shareholder return as compared to other companies within the Nasdaq biotechnology index over the measurement period and may be capped based on our absolute total shareholder return over such period. We use the Monte Carlo simulation model to determine the estimated grant date fair value. The Monte Carlo simulation model incorporates assumptions such as the volatility of our stock, the

Table of Contents

volatility of the stock of other peer companies within the index, and the correlation of both our stock and our peer companies’ stock to the index.

•The fair value of an RSU is equal to the closing price of our common stock on the grant date.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the liability method. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities based on differences between the financial reporting and tax reporting bases of assets and liabilities, measured using enacted tax rates and laws that we expect to be in effect when we expect the differences to reverse. Realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon future earnings, the timing and amount of which are uncertain. We record a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets to reduce their carrying value to an amount that is more likely than not to be realized. When we establish or reduce the valuation allowance related to the deferred tax assets, our provision for income taxes will increase or decrease, respectively, in the period we make such determination.

We utilize a two-step approach to recognize and measure uncertain tax positions. The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained upon tax authority examination, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes, if any. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount of benefit, determined on a cumulative probability basis, that is more than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement.

For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our income tax provision primarily relates to our Nektar India subsidiary. As a result of the 2022 Restructuring Plan and our intent to wind down our foreign subsidiaries, we have recorded a provision for the repatriation of accumulated earnings and profits from India. See Note 13 for additional information.

Net Loss Per Share

For all periods presented in the Consolidated Statements of Operations, the net loss available to common stockholders is equal to the reported net loss. We calculate basic net loss per share based on the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the periods presented. For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, basic and diluted net loss per share are the same due to our net losses and the requirement to exclude potentially dilutive securities which would have an antidilutive effect on net loss per share. We excluded shares underlying the weighted average outstanding stock options, RSUs and PSUs, which totaled 21.2 million, 18.4 million and 17.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Comprehensive Loss

Comprehensive loss is the change in stockholders’ equity from transactions and other events and circumstances other than those resulting from investments by stockholders and distributions to stockholders. Our comprehensive loss includes our net loss, gains and losses from the foreign currency translation of the assets and liabilities of our foreign subsidiaries, and unrealized gains and losses on investments in available-for-sale securities.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

We have reviewed recent accounting pronouncements and concluded they are either not applicable to us or that we do not expect adoption to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Note 2 — Cash and Investments in Marketable Securities

Cash and investments in marketable securities, including cash equivalents, are as follows (in thousands):

Estimated Fair Value at

Long-term investments — 64,828

Total cash and investments in marketable securities $ 504,977 $ 798,783

Table of Contents

We invest in liquid, high quality debt securities. Our investments in debt securities are subject to interest rate risk. To minimize the exposure due to an adverse shift in interest rates, we invest in securities with maturities of two years or less and maintain a weighted average maturity of one year or less. All of our long-term investments as of December 31, 2021 had maturities between one and two years.

During the year ended December 31, 2022 we sold no available-for-sale securities. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we sold available-for-sale securities totaling $11.5 million and $41.7 million, respectively. Gross realized gains and losses on those sales were not significant.

We report our accrued interest receivable, which totaled $0.7 million and $1.4 million at December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively, in other current assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Our portfolio of cash and investments in marketable securities includes (in thousands):

Obligations of U.S. government agencies 2 — — — — 5,875

Total cash and investments in marketable securities $ 504,977 $ 798,783

At December 31, 2021, our gross unrealized losses totaled $0.7 million. Our gross unrealized gains were not significant. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, we assessed our marketable securities with unrealized losses and concluded that the losses were not attributable to credit. Accordingly, we have not recorded an allowance for credit losses for these securities.

At both December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had letter of credit arrangements in favor of our landlords and certain vendors totaling $7.5 million and $8.1 million, respectively. These letters of credit are secured by investments of similar amounts.

Note 3 — Inventory

Inventory consists of the following (in thousands):

December 31,

Table of Contents

Note 4 — Property, Plant and Equipment

Property, plant and equipment consists of the following (in thousands):

December 31,

Building and leasehold improvements $ 74,889 $ 97,385

Depreciable property, plant and equipment at cost 154,652 201,386

Depreciable property, plant and equipment, net 29,921 53,347

Property, plant and equipment, net $ 32,451 $ 60,510

Laboratory and manufacturing equipment, including construction-in-process, include assets that support both our manufacturing and research and development activities.

Property, plant and equipment decreased significantly for the year ended December 31, 2022 as a result of our 2022 Restructuring Plan. As further disclosed in Note 11, we sold our research and development facility in India, we sold or disposed of laboratory equipment and certain computer software, and we recognized impairment charges for leasehold improvements and certain furniture and fixtures for spaces we seek to sublease.

Depreciation and amortization expense for property, plant and equipment for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020 was $12.2 million, $13.0 million, and $12.5 million, respectively.

Note 5 — Operating Leases

Our leases consist of a Lease Agreement (the Mission Bay Lease) with ARE-San Francisco No. 19, LLC (ARE) for our 155,215 square foot corporate office and R&D facility located at 455 Mission Bay Boulevard South, San Francisco, California (the Mission Bay Facility) and a Lease Agreement (the Third Street Lease) with Kilroy Realty Finance Partnership, L.P. (Kilroy) for an additional 135,936 square foot of office space at 360 Third Street, San Francisco, California (the Third Street Facility). The following table presents key information regarding these leases (dollars in thousands):

Mission Bay Facility Third Street Facility

Lease commencement September 2017 June 2018

Renewal terms Two consecutive five-year terms One five-year term

•The monthly base rent for both facilities will escalate over the term of the lease at various intervals.

•Both leases include various covenants, indemnities, defaults, termination rights, security deposits and other provisions customary for lease transactions of this nature.

•During the term of the Mission Bay Lease, we are responsible for paying our share of operating expenses specified in the lease, including utilities, common area maintenance, insurance costs and taxes.

•For the Third Street Lease, our fixed annual base rent on an industrial gross lease basis includes certain expenses and property taxes paid directly by the landlord. We have a one-time right of first offer with respect to certain additional rental space at the Third Street Facility.

Due to our 2022 Restructuring Plan, during the year ended December 31, 2022, we recorded impairment charges of $54.6 million for our right-of-use assets which we are seeking to sublease. See Note 11 for additional information.

Table of Contents

We generally recognize lease expense for our operating leases on a straight-line basis over the lease term, and we continue to recognize lease expense on a straight-line basis for spaces for which we did not recognize an impairment. For spaces where we did recognize an impairment charge, the aggregate lease expense recognized over the remaining term is reduced by the amount of the impairment charge, but we recognize the remaining lease expense on an accelerated basis. The components of lease expense, which we include in operating expenses in our Consolidated Statements of Operations, were as follows (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2010, we paid $20.1 million, $16.8 million and $16.2 million, respectively, of operating lease payments related to our lease liabilities, which we include in net cash used in operating activities in our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

As of December 31, 2022, the maturities of our operating lease liabilities were as follows (in thousands):

Year ending December 31,

Less: portion representing interest (29,917)

Operating lease liabilities 131,496

Less: current portion (18,667)

Operating lease liabilities, less current portion $ 112,829

As of December 31, 2022, the weighted-average remaining lease term is 7.1 years and the weighted-average discount rate used to determine the operating lease liability was 5.8%.

We have entered into subleases for certain spaces that provide recovery of $10.5 million in aggregate lease payments, as well as the subtenants' share of operating expenses. The reduction to lease expense for the year ended December 31, 2022, was not significant but will increase in future periods.

Note 6 — Co-Development Agreement with SFJ Pharmaceuticals and Development Derivative Liability

On February 12, 2021, we entered into a Co-Development Agreement (the SFJ Agreement) with SFJ Pharmaceuticals XII, L.P., a SFJ Pharmaceuticals Group company (SFJ), pursuant to which SFJ would pay up to $150.0 million in committed funding to support a Phase 2/3 study of bempegaldesleukin in combination with Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) for first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (the SCCHN Clinical Trial) whose tumors express PD-L1 (the SCCHN Indication). SFJ has primary responsibility for the clinical trial management of the SCCHN Clinical Trial, and we are the sponsor of the SCCHN Clinical Trial. The SFJ Agreement provided for us to pay up to $637.5 million in Success Payments in the event of FDA approval of bempegaldesleukin for the metastatic melanoma, the SCCHN Indication, or both, and in the event of FDA approval of one additional bempegaldesleukin indication.

We presented the SFJ Agreement as a Development derivative liability in our Consolidated Balance Sheets, which we remeasured to fair value at each reporting date. As SFJ conducted the SCCHN Clinical Trial, we recorded non-cash research and development expense with a corresponding increase to the development derivative liability, and as SFJ remitted funding to us to support our internal costs of conducting the trial, we also recorded a corresponding increase to the development derivative liability. We presented the gain (loss) from the remeasurement as change in fair value of development derivative liability in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Table of Contents

The following table presents the changes in the development derivative liability:

Year Ended December 31,

Non-cash research and development expense 4,951 16,703

Change in the fair value of development derivative liability (33,427) 8,023

Fair value at end of period 3 $ — $ 27,726

As of December 31, 2021, we valued the derivative using a scenario-based discounted cash flow method, whereby each scenario makes assumptions about the probability and timing of cash flows, and we discount such cash flows to present value using a risk-adjusted rate. The key inputs to the valuation included our estimates of the following: (i) the probability of the bempegaldesleukin trials meeting their primary endpoints, and if successful, the probability and timing of achieving FDA approval, (ii) the timing and the amount of costs incurred by SFJ for the SCCHN Clinical Trial, including the probability of early termination of the study based on an interim futility analysis, and (iii) each party’s cost of borrowing.

As of March 31, 2022, due to the negative results of the metastatic melanoma trial and initial discussions with SFJ, we concluded that it was remote that SFJ and we would continue the SCCHN Clinical Trial. Accordingly, the fair value of the development derivative liability was reduced to zero as of March 31, 2022, and we recognized a corresponding gain in the Change in fair value of development derivative liability. As discussed in Note 1, on April 14, 2022, BMS and we decided to end the development for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo® and that all other ongoing studies in the bempegaldesleukin program would be discontinued. We also announced that SFJ and we agreed to discontinue the SCCHN Clinical Trial. Accordingly, SFJ will not be entitled to any Success Payments, and SFJ has the responsibility to wind down the SCCHN Clinical Trial at its sole cost. SFJ has no right to seek reimbursement from us for any costs incurred for the SCCHN Clinical Trial.

Note 7 — Liabilities Related to the Sales of Future Royalties

On February 24, 2012, we entered into a purchase and sale agreement (the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement) with RPI Finance Trust (RPI), an affiliate of Royalty Pharma, pursuant to which we sold, and RPI purchased, our right to receive royalty payments (the 2012 Transaction Royalties) arising from the worldwide net sales, from and after January 1, 2012, of (a) CIMZIA®, under our license, manufacturing and supply agreement with UCB Pharma (UCB), and (b) MIRCERA®, under our license, manufacturing and supply agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. (together referred to as Roche). We received aggregate cash proceeds of $124.0 million for the 2012 Transaction Royalties. Although we sold all of our rights to receive royalties from the CIMZIA® and MIRCERA® products, as a result of our ongoing manufacturing and supply obligations related to the generation of these royalties, we continue to account for these royalties as revenue. We recorded the $124.0 million in proceeds from this transaction as a liability (the 2012 Royalty Obligation) that is amortized using the effective interest method over the estimated life of the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement as royalties from the CIMZIA® and MIRCERA® products are remitted directly to RPI. As of December 31, 2022, our prospective effective interest rate used to amortize the liability is 10%.

On June 5, 2020, UCB served notice of a Declaratory Judgment of Patent Invalidity, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, seeking a declaration of invalidity of certain of our patents that we had licensed to UCB and pursued similar actions in other jurisdictions. On October 14, 2021, RPI and we entered into a Letter Agreement which permitted us to enter into a Settlement Agreement, effective October 13, 2021, with UCB to effect the negotiation between RPI and UCB in which UCB and RPI agreed to a reduction in the royalty term and annual decreases in the royalty rate over the remaining royalty term in exchange for UCB’s withdrawal of all of UCB’s litigation and challenges.

We concluded that we should account for the decrease in royalty payments to RPI as a result of these agreements as a modification of our liability. Due to the significance of the change in the estimated royalty payments, we concluded that we should treat the modification as an extinguishment of the prior liability and recognize a new liability based on the revised royalty payments and term, discounted to fair value. Accordingly, we estimated the fair value to be approximately $84.7 million, reflecting a discount rate of 16.0%. As a result, we recognized a loss of $23.5 million on the revaluation of the prior liability in the three months ended December 31, 2021, and we wrote off the remaining $0.9 million of unamortized

Table of Contents

transaction costs. We present these charges in Loss on revaluation of liability related to the sale of future royalties line in our Consolidated Statement of Operations.

On December 16, 2020, we entered into a purchase and sale agreement (the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement) with entities managed by Healthcare Royalty Management, LLC (collectively, HCR). Pursuant to the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement, we agreed to sell to HCR certain of our rights to receive royalty payments (the 2020 Transaction Royalties) arising from the worldwide net sales, from and after October 1, 2020 until such time that certain return thresholds are met as described below, of (a) MOVANTIK® under that certain License Agreement, dated September 20, 2009, by and between Nektar and AstraZeneca AB, as amended, (b) ADYNOVATE® under that certain Exclusive Research, Development, License and Manufacturing and Supply Agreement, dated September 26, 2005, by and among Nektar, Baxalta US Inc. and Baxalta GmbH, as amended, (c) REBINYN® under that certain Settlement and License Agreement, dated December 21, 2016, by and among Nektar, Novo Nordisk Inc., Novo Nordisk A/S and Novo Nordisk A/G and (d) licensed products under that certain Right to Sublicense Agreement, dated October 27, 2017, by and among Nektar, Baxalta Incorporated, Baxalta US Inc. and Baxalta GmbH.

The 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement will automatically expire, and the payment of the 2020 Transaction Royalties to HCR will cease, when HCR has received payments of the 2020 Transaction Royalties equal to $210.0 million (the 2025 Threshold), if the 2025 Threshold is achieved on or prior to December 31, 2025, or $240.0 million, if the 2025 Threshold is not achieved on or prior to December 31, 2025 (or, if earlier, the date on which the last royalty payment under the relevant license agreements is made). If HCR has received payments of the 2020 Transaction Royalties equal to at least $208.0 million on or prior to December 31, 2025, we have the option to pay the difference between the 2025 Threshold and such 2020 Transaction Royalties, and the 2025 Threshold will be met and the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement will expire. After the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement expires, all rights to receive the 2020 Transaction Royalties return to Nektar.

On December 30, 2020, we received aggregate cash proceeds of $150.0 million for the 2020 Transaction Royalties. As part of the sale, we incurred approximately $3.8 million in transaction costs, which will be amortized to interest expense over the estimated life of the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement. Although we sold all of our rights to receive royalties from these products up to the cap, as a result of the limits on the 2020 Transaction Royalties to be received by HCR and our ongoing manufacturing and supply obligations related to the generation of these royalties, we will continue to account for these non-cash royalties as revenue, commencing with royalties for the three months ended December 31, 2020, to be received by HCR in the first quarter of 2021. We recorded the $150.0 million in proceeds from this transaction as a liability (the 2020 Royalty Obligation) that will be amortized using the effective interest method over the estimated life of the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement. As of December 31, 2022, our prospective effective interest rate used to amortize the liability is 20%.

The following table shows the activity within the liability account of each arrangement (in thousands):

Year-Ended December 31, 2022 Period from inception to December 31, 2022

Pursuant to the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement, in March 2014 and March 2013, we were required to pay RPI $7.0 million and $3.0 million, respectively, as a result of worldwide net sales of MIRCERA® for the 12 month periods ended

Table of Contents

December 31, 2013 and 2012 not reaching certain minimum thresholds. The 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement does not include any other potential payments related to minimum net sales thresholds and, therefore, we do not expect to make any further payments to RPI related to this agreement.

As royalties are remitted to RPI and HCR by our licensees, the balances of the respective Royalty Obligations will be effectively repaid over the lives of the agreements. To determine the amortization of the Royalty Obligations, we are required to estimate the total amount of future royalty payments to be received by RPI and HCR, respectively. The sum of these amounts less the net proceeds we received will be recorded as non-cash interest expense, as well as the loss on the revaluation described above, over the lives of the respective Royalty Obligations. We periodically assess the estimated royalty payments to RPI and HCR from our licensees and to the extent the amount or timing of such payments is materially different than our original estimates, we will prospectively adjust the imputed interest rate and the related amortization of the appropriate Royalty Obligation.

There are a number of factors that could materially affect the amount and timing of royalty payments from our licensees, most of which are not within our control. Such factors include, but are not limited to, changing standards of care, the introduction of competing products, manufacturing or other delays, biosimilar competition, intellectual property matters, adverse events that result in governmental health authority imposed restrictions on the use of the drug products, significant changes in foreign exchange rates as the royalties remitted to RPI or HCR are made in U.S. dollars (USD) while significant portions of the underlying sales of the products of our licensees are made in currencies other than USD, and other events or circumstances that could result in reduced royalty payments from our licensees, all of which would result in a reduction of non-cash royalty revenues and the non-cash interest expense over the life of the respective Royalty Obligation. Conversely, for the 2012 Purchase and Sale Agreement, if sales of these products are more than expected, the non-cash royalty revenues and the non-cash interest expense recorded by us would be greater over the term of the 2012 Royalty Obligation.

Note 8 — Commitments and Contingencies

Purchase Commitments

In the normal course of business, we enter into various firm purchase commitments related to contract manufacturing, clinical development and certain other items. As of December 31, 2022, these commitments were not significant.

Legal Matters

From time to time, we are involved in lawsuits, arbitrations, claims, investigations and proceedings, consisting of intellectual property, commercial, employment and other matters, which arise in the ordinary course of business. We make provisions for liabilities when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Such provisions are reviewed at least quarterly and adjusted to reflect the impact of settlement negotiations, judicial and administrative rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular case. Litigation is inherently unpredictable. If any unfavorable ruling were to occur in any specific period, there exists the possibility of a material adverse impact on the results of our operations for that period and on our cash flows and liquidity.

We have recorded no liability for any litigation matters in our Consolidated Balance Sheets at either December 31, 2022 or December 31, 2021.

Foreign Operations

We have operated in a number of foreign countries, but we are in the process of winding down our foreign subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2022, we no longer have any foreign properties and only a few remaining employees in foreign locations. We are subject to numerous local laws and regulations that can result in claims made by foreign government agencies or other third parties that are often difficult to predict even after the application of good faith compliance efforts.

Indemnification Obligations

During the course of our normal operating activities, we have agreed to certain contingent indemnification obligations as further described below. The term of our indemnification obligations is generally perpetual. There is generally no limitation on the potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification obligations. To date, we have not incurred significant costs to defend lawsuits or settle claims based on our indemnification obligations. If any of our indemnification obligations is triggered, we may incur substantial liabilities. Because the aggregate amount of any of these potential indemnification obligations is not a stated amount, we cannot reasonably estimate the overall maximum amount of any such obligations. We have recorded no liabilities for these obligations in our Consolidated Balance Sheets at either December 31, 2022 or December 31, 2021.

Table of Contents

Indemnifications in Connection with Commercial Agreements

As part of our collaboration agreements with our partners related to the license, development, manufacture and supply of drugs and PEGylation materials based on our proprietary technologies and drug candidates, we generally agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our partners from and against third party liabilities arising out of the agreement, including product liability (with respect to our activities) and infringement of intellectual property to the extent the intellectual property is developed by us and licensed to our partners. The term of these indemnification obligations is generally perpetual commencing after execution of the agreement. There is generally no limitation on the potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification obligations.

From time to time, we enter into other strategic agreements such as divestitures and financing transactions pursuant to which we are required to make representations and warranties and undertake to perform or comply with certain covenants. For example, we made certain intellectual property representations in connection with our RPI and HCR transactions, however, the time limitation we have to indemnify RPI with respect to any breach of these intellectual property-based representations and warranties has passed. In the event it is determined that we breached certain of the representations and warranties or covenants made by us in any such agreements or certain express indemnification provisions are applicable, we could incur substantial indemnification liabilities depending on the timing, nature, and amount of any such claims.

To date, we have not incurred any costs to defend lawsuits or settle claims related to these indemnification obligations, nor any breaches of representations or warranties or covenants. Because the aggregate amount of any potential indemnification obligation is not a stated amount, we cannot reasonably estimate the overall maximum amount of any such obligations.

Indemnification of Underwriters and Initial Purchasers of our Securities

In connection with our sale of equity we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our underwriters or initial purchasers, as applicable, as well as certain related parties from and against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Director and Officer Indemnifications

As permitted under Delaware law, and as set forth in our Certificate of Incorporation and our Bylaws, we indemnify our directors, executive officers, other officers, employees, and other agents for certain events or occurrences that may arise while in such capacity. The maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under this indemnification is unlimited; however, we have insurance policies that may limit our exposure and may enable us to recover a portion of any future amounts paid. Assuming the applicability of coverage, the willingness of the insurer to assume coverage, and subject to certain retention, loss limits and other policy provisions, we believe any obligations under this indemnification would not be material, other than retention of up to $10.0 million per incident for merger and acquisition related claims, $10.0 million per incident for securities related claims and $10.0 million per incident for non-securities related claims per our insurance policy. However, no assurances can be given that the covering insurers will not attempt to dispute the validity, applicability, or amount of coverage without expensive litigation against these insurers, in which case we may incur substantial liabilities as a result of these indemnification obligations.

Note 9 — Stockholders’ Equity

As discussed in Note 10, on April 3, 2018, we completed the issuance and sale of 8,284,600 shares of our common stock under a Share Purchase Agreement with BMS. These shares are unregistered and subject to certain lock-up and stand-still provisions for a five-year period.

Prior to the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we had an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement) on file with the SEC. The 2021 Shelf Registration Statement permitted the offering, issuance and sale by us of up to an aggregate offering price of $300.0 million of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants in one or more offerings and in any combination, all of which could be offered, issued and sold in “at-the-market” sales pursuant to an equity distribution agreement with Cowen and Company, LLC (the Equity Distribution Agreement). No securities were sold under the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement or the Equity Distribution Agreement. As a result of the recent decline in our market capitalization, we are no longer a well-known seasoned issuer. Accordingly, the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement will no longer be available for us to offer and sell securities pursuant to the 2021 Shelf Registration Statement following the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Table of Contents

As of December 31, 2022, shares of common stock reserved for future issuance are as follows (in thousands):

Stock options, RSUs and PSUs outstanding 23,589

Shares available for issuance under the employee stock purchase plan 841

Total common stock reserved for issuance 27,403

Our accumulated other comprehensive loss as of December 31, 2022, includes $1.8 million for net unrealized losses on our available for sale securities and $5.1 million for accumulated net translation losses primarily from our subsidiary in India.

Note 10 — License and Collaboration Agreements

We have entered into various collaboration agreements including license agreements and collaborative research, development and commercialization agreements with various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Under these collaboration arrangements, we are entitled to receive license fees, upfront payments, milestone and other contingent payments, royalties, sales milestone payments, and payments for the manufacture and supply of our proprietary PEGylation materials and/or reimbursement for research and development activities. We generally include our costs of performing these services in research and development expense, except for costs for product sales to our collaboration partners which we include in cost of goods sold. We analyze our agreements to determine whether we should account for the agreements within the scope of ASC 808, and, if so, we analyze whether we should account for any elements under ASC 606.

In accordance with our collaboration agreements, we recognized license, collaboration and other revenue as follows (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Bristol-Myers Squibb Bempegaldesleukin $ — $ — $ 50,000

License, collaboration and other revenue $ 1,913 $ 436 $ 55,849

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS): Bempegaldesleukin (previously referred to as NKTR-214)

On February 13, 2018, we entered into a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (the BMS Collaboration Agreement) and a Share Purchase Agreement with BMS, both of which became effective on April 3, 2018. Pursuant to the BMS Collaboration Agreement, we and BMS have jointly developed bempegaldesleukin in combination with BMS’s Opdivo®. The parties share the internal and external development costs for bempegaldesleukin in combination regimens based on each party’s relative ownership interest in the compounds included in the regimens. In accordance with the agreement, the parties share development costs for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo®, 67.5% of costs to BMS and 32.5% to Nektar. The parties share costs for the manufacturing and commercialization of bempegaldesleukin, 35% of the costs to BMS and 65% to Nektar.

Upon the effective date of the BMS Collaboration Agreement in April 2018, BMS paid us a non-refundable upfront cash payment of $1.0 billion and purchased 8,284,600 shares of our common stock pursuant to the Share Purchase Agreement for total additional cash consideration of $850.0 million. In 2020, we received non-refundable milestone payments of $50.0 million in aggregate for the first patient, first visit in the registrational trials in muscle-invasive bladder cancer and adjuvant melanoma.

As discussed in Note 1, on March 14, 2022, we announced our registrational trial in metastatic melanoma did not meet its primary endpoints and that BMS and we decided to discontinue the trials in metastatic melanoma and adjuvant melanoma. On April 14, 2022, we announced that our registrational trials in each of renal cell carcinoma and cisplatin-ineligible, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer did not meet their respective primary endpoints. Due to these results, BMS and we decided that these studies and all other ongoing studies in the program will be discontinued. The decision to terminate the program does not affect the cost-sharing provisions under the BMS Collaboration Agreement. However, without further development of bempegaldesleukin, we will no longer be eligible for the development, regulatory and sales milestones under the arrangement.

We determined that the BMS Collaboration Agreement falls within the scope of ASC 808. As mentioned above, BMS shares certain percentages of development costs incurred by us and we share certain percentages of development costs incurred by BMS. We consider these activities to represent collaborative activities under ASC 808 and we recognize such cost sharing

Table of Contents

proportionately with the performance of the underlying services. We recognized BMS’ reimbursement of our expenses as a reduction of research and development expense and our reimbursement of BMS’ expenses as research and development expense. As discussed in Note 11, we terminated the development of bempegaldesleukin, and therefore, in the second quarter of 2022, we began reporting clinical trial, other third-party costs and employee costs for the bempegaldesleukin program in restructuring, impairment and other costs of program. Accordingly, during the year ended December 31, 2022, we recorded $45.7 million for the net reimbursement from BMS, of which we recorded $24.9 million as a reduction of research and development expense for the first quarter of 2022, and $20.8 million as a reduction of restructuring, impairment and other costs of terminated program for the remaining three quarters of 2022. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we recorded $101.5 million and $128.2 million, respectively, as a reduction of research and development expense for the net reimbursement from BMS. As of December 31, 2022, we have recorded an unbilled receivable of $4.2 million from BMS in accounts receivable in our Consolidated Balance Sheet, which we received in February 2023.

Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly): NKTR-358

On July 23, 2017, we entered into a worldwide license agreement (the Lilly Agreement) with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to co-develop rezpegaldesleukin, a novel immunological drug candidate that we invented, pursuant to which we received an initial payment of $150.0 million and are eligible for up to $250.0 million in additional development and regulatory milestones. Although we are entitled to significant development milestones under this arrangement if Lilly decides to proceed to Phase 3 development, we have excluded such milestones from the transaction price due to the significant uncertainties involved with clinical development. We re-evaluate the transaction price at each reporting period and as uncertain events are resolved or other changes in circumstances occur.

We are currently in Phase 1B and Phase 2 development, where we share costs with 75% of the costs borne by Lilly and 25% of the costs borne by us. Lilly is responsible for the costs of Phase 3 development, but we retain the option to contribute up to 25% of the costs ofPhase 3 development on an indication-by-indication basis in order for us to achieve the maximum royalty level under the Lilly Agreement, and further, if approved, we will have the opportunity to receive a royalty rate up to the low twenties percent based upon our Phase 3 development cost contribution and the level of annual global product sales. Lilly will be responsible for all costs of global commercialization, and we will have an option to co-promote in the U.S. under certain conditions. A portion of the development milestones may be reduced by 50% under certain conditions, related to the final formulation of the approved product and the timing of prior approval (if any) of competitive products with a similar mechanism of action, which could reduce these milestone payments by 75% if both conditions occur. The Lilly Agreement will continue until Lilly no longer has any royalty payment obligations or, if earlier, the termination of the agreement in accordance with its terms. The Lilly Agreement may be terminated by Lilly for convenience, and may also be terminated under certain other circumstances, including material breach.

On February 23, 2023, we announced the topline data from the Phase 2 study of rezpegaldesleukin in adult patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (Phase 2 Lupus Study). The primary endpoint of the Phase 2 Lupus Study was not met, and Lilly has notified us that it does not intend to advance rezpegaldesleukin into Phase 3 development for SLE.

Baxalta Inc. / Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd.: Hemophilia

We are a party to an exclusive research, development, license and manufacturing and supply agreement with Baxalta Inc. (Baxalta), a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. (Takeda), entered into in September 2005 to develop products designed to improve therapies for Hemophilia A patients using our PEGylation technology, resulting in the approval of ADYNOVATE® by the FDA in 2015, which is now marketed in the U.S., the European Union, and many other countries. We are entitled to royalties based on worldwide net sales of ADYNOVATE® and a sales milestone upon achievement of an annual worldwide net sales target. We are responsible for supplying Takeda with its requirements for our proprietary materials. Takeda is responsible for all clinical development, regulatory, and commercialization expenses. The agreement is terminable by the parties under customary conditions.

In October 2017, we entered into a right to sublicense agreement with Baxalta, under which we granted to Baxalta the right to grant a nonexclusive sublicense to certain patents that were previously exclusively licensed to Baxalta under our 2005 agreement. Under the right to sublicense agreement, we are entitled to single digit royalty payments based upon net sales of the products covered under the sublicense throughout the term of the agreement. As described in Note 7, we sold our rights to receive these royalties to HCR pursuant to the 2020 Purchase and Sale Agreement.

Table of Contents

AstraZeneca AB: MOVANTIK® (naloxegol oxalate)

NKTR US Equity

NKTR · 10-K · period ended 2022-12-31

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

NKTR US Equity☆

NKTR · 10-K · period ended 2022-12-31

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

NKTR US Equity