VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zymeworks Inc., a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of best-in-class antibody and next generation protein-based therapeutics, today announced the close and over-subscription of a previously announced private placement. The financing included investments from new and existing shareholders, and extended the total gross proceeds from the offering to approximately $17.3M. The Company’s decision to close the private placement was made in advance of today’s announcement of a US $375 million licensing and collaboration expansion with Eli Lilly and Company. The licensing and collaboration agreement also included an equity investment by Lilly, which was excluded from the proceeds of the over-subscribed private placement.
Proceeds from the private placement will be used to continue the advancement of Zymeworks’ novel bi-specific pipeline candidates towards clinical trials with the lead oncology therapeutic, ZW25, planned for an IND filing and phase 1 clinical trials in 2016.
“The enthusiasm and strong, continued support demonstrated by our shareholders provides a clear mandate to the Company as we continue to advance towards clinical studies,” said Ali Tehrani, Zymeworks’ President and CEO. “We remain excited by the potential for our therapeutics to deliver groundbreaking treatments to patients in areas of high unmet medical need, supported by world class research efforts and what we believe is the world’s most advanced platform for the design and development of bi-specific antibodies.
About Zymeworks Inc.
Zymeworks is a privately held
biotherapeutics company that is developing best-in-class Azymetric™
bi-specific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates for the treatment of
oncology, autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases. The company’s novel
Azymetric™ and AlbuCORE™ platforms, and its proprietary ZymeCAD™
structure-guided protein engineering technology, enable the development
of highly potent bi-specific antibodies and multivalent protein
therapeutics targeted across a range of indications. Zymeworks is
focused on accelerating its preclinical biotherapeutics pipeline through
in-house research and development programs and strategic collaborations.
More information on Zymeworks can be found at www.zymeworks.com.
