Nektar down on Exubera rumors

On Thursday, NKTR was down $6.14 (37%) to $10.45 on 25 million shares on rumors that an MAA for Exubera inhaled insulin from partners Pfizer (PFE) and Aventis (AVE) is unlikely to be approved. The rumors prompted Deutsche Bank analyst David Steinberg to downgrade NKTR to "hold." He also dropped his price target to $10 from $30. Steinberg believes that an unnamed diabetes treatment described as "not licensable at this time" in the minutes of a May 27 meeting of the U.K.'s Committee on Safety of Medicines is most likely Exubera. ...