Zymeworks Inc. is a publicly held biotechnology company based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, that develops protein therapeutics for the treatment of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

as well as for

autoimmune In immunology, autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells, tissues and other normal body constituents. Any disease resulting from this type of immune response is termed an " autoimmune disease" ...

and

inflammatory diseases Inflammation (from ) is part of the biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants. The five cardinal signs are heat, pain, redness, swelling, and Functio laesa, loss of funct ...

. The products are based upon the company's

molecular modeling Molecular modelling encompasses all methods, theoretical and computational, used to model or mimic the behaviour of molecules. The methods are used in the fields of computational chemistry, drug design, computational biology and materials scienc ...

software for optimizing protein structure. In 2014, Zymeworks raised $44 million across various funding rounds according to PitchBook, placing it among the top 10 HealthTech businesses in the world to raise the most capital that year. In May 2017, Zymeworks held an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

, raising $59 million. This was the largest Canadian biotech IPO in more than a decade. By alphabetical order, Zymeworks is the last company on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In May 2019, Zymeworks announced that GSK has expanded its 2016 licensing and collaboration agreement for the research, development and commercialization of bispecific antibodies across multiple disease areas. The extended agreement has meant that GSK can have access to Zymeworks' heavy-light chain pairing technology, which enables the development of bispecific and multifunctional therapeutics. In September 2019, Zymeworks announced that, following their clinical trials, it has been confirmed that their ZW25 monotherapy can provide durable disease control in patients with a variety of HER2-expressing solid tumors that have progressed following standard of care treatments. In May 2022, Zymeworks rejected an unsolicited takeover proposal from a Dubai hedge fund, All Blue Falcons FZE, an arm of All Blue Capital.

Azymetric

This is an

IgG1 Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is a type of antibody. Representing approximately 75% of serum antibodies in humans, IgG is the most common type of antibody found in blood circulation. IgG molecules are created and released by plasma B cells. Each IgG ant ...

-based

heterodimeric In biochemistry, a protein dimer is a macromolecular complex or multimer formed by two protein monomers, or single proteins, which are usually non-covalently bound. Many macromolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, form dimers. The word ...

antibody scaffold that consists of two different heavy chains engineered to exclusively assemble into a single molecule, allowing bi-specific binding to two different

antigens In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule, moiety, foreign particulate matter, or an allergen, such as pollen, that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. An ...

or drug targets. The Azymetric scaffold is engineered by making amino acid changes in the CH3 region of the constant Fc domain of the IgG1. This scaffold can also be engineered with tailored effector function and optimized serum

half-life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...

Awards and recognition

* Deal of the Year, Lifesciences BC Awards, 2018 * Life Sciences Company of the Year, Lifesciences BC Awards, 2016 * Emerging company of the year – Health, BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Awards, 2015 * 12th Place, BC's Leading Innovators, 2011 * Life Science Emerging Rocket, 2009, 2010, 2011 * Early stage Company of the year – Industrial & Agriculture, BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Awards, 20092009 BIOTECanada Annual Report
. Retrieved 2012-04-12.

References

Biotechnology companies of Canada Companies based in Vancouver Pharmaceutical companies established in 2003 Pharmaceutical companies of Canada Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange {{Canada-company-stub