Indeed

So while the biopharma world chewed over the Novartis situation, parsed the Sarepta statement, and processed the Amarin news, Nektar Therapeutics went and halted its stock, too.

The problem, Nektar revealed after hours yesterday, is that the company produced some “suboptimal” batches of a cancer drug used in a melanoma trial. That, according to management, may have dampened the effect of its drug, bempegaldesleukin, which was tested alongside Bristol-Myers Squibb’s blockbuster Nivolumab.

On the one hand, that suggests Nektar’s unpronounceable therapy might be more potent than previously thought. On the other hand, it suggests Nektar has a problem when it comes to manufacturing that drug, which doesn’t exactly bode well for the future.