Interim chief medical officer and head of development installed at Nektar

Interim chief medical officer and head of development installed at Nektar

Brian Kotzin, M.D., has been appointed as interim chief medical officer, head of development at Nektar Therapeutics. Since 2017, Dr. Kotzin served as senior VP, clinical development, and head of Immunology at Nektar. Wei Lin left the company to pursue another opportunity.

“We are pleased that Dr. Kotzin will take on this key role on our development team at Nektar,” says Jonathan Zalevsky, chief R&D Officer of Nektar Therapeutics. “Since he joined Nektar in 2017, Dr. Kotzin has demonstrated strong leadership and strategic insight. He has extensive development experience and over 30 years of expertise in immunology and his strategic guidance will be invaluable to Nektar as we continue to execute on development activities for our immune-oncology and immunology pipeline.”

“I am honored to expand my role at Nektar and work alongside Dr. Zalevsky,” Kotzin says. “This is an exciting time for the company with multiple registrational studies underway in a range of tumor types for BEMPEG, a broadening clinical program for NKTR-358 in a number of auto-immune disorders, and an emerging opportunity for NKTR-255 in both hematological malignancies and solid tumors.”

While at Nektar, Dr. Kotzin has spearheaded the NKTR-358 development program partnered with Eli Lilly and Co., and he has also served as a development program lead for early development of NKTR-255 and NKTR-262. 

Dr. Kotzin was previously at Amgen for 11 years, where he served as VP, global clinical development and head of the Inflammation Therapeutic area directing the global development efforts for Amgen product candidates, including all immunology programs. During his tenure at Amgen, he also served as VP of Translational Sciences and head of Medical Sciences/Early Development, where he was responsible for the planning and execution of early-phase clinical development in all therapeutic areas as well as the discovery and implementation of pharmacodynamic biomarkers and clinical immunology support for clinical studies. 

Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Kotzin served as head of clinical immunology in the Department of Medicine and as director of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. He previously held the position of professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Immunology at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. 

In addition to academic posts in rheumatology and microbiology/immunology, Dr. Kotzin served at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Denver as chief of the Rheumatology Section. 

Dr. Kotzin received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Southern California and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology and medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is board certified in rheumatology and internal medicine.

“Over the past two years, Wei has played a leadership role in recruiting an experienced clinical development organization and executing a late-stage clinical development strategy for BEMPEG, positioning it for future success,” Zalevsky says. “I would like to thank him for his contributions to Nektar, and wish him the best in his next opportunity.”