Nektar Therapeutics

Stephen K. Doberstein, Ph.D., has been appointed senior vice president and chief scientific officer, Nektar Therapeutics. Dr. Doberstein will report to the company’s president and chief executive officer, Howard W. Robin. In this newly created role, he will lead all aspects of discovery research at Nektar. Dr. Doberstein has more than 17 years of experience in biotechnology R&D.

“We are delighted to have Steve join the Nektar executive team as we execute on our research strategy to develop innovative therapeutics with our proven polymer conjugate technology platform,” said Howard W. Robin, president and chief executive officer of Nektar Therapeutics. “Steve is a highly talented executive with an impressive track record. His experience and leadership will be instrumental as we continue to build our pipeline of proprietary drug candidates.”

Prior to joining the company, Dr. Doberstein was vice president of research at Xoma, where he was responsible for directing the discovery and development of drug candidates, including antibody discovery and support of clinical development through non-clinical safety, translational medicine and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics. Prior to that, he served as vice president, research at Five Prime Therapeutics, a protein and antibody discovery and development company, and was also vice president, research at Xencor, an antibody and protein engineering and development company.