Zymeworks Inc. Files Registration Statement For Proposed IPO

Zymeworks Inc. (to be listed on NASDAQ as ZYME) of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been blitzing its way through a series of partnerships and expansion projects focused on its bispecific antibodies and armed ADCs...[which] will now depend on raising at least $75 million in an IPO. 

Written by John Carroll

Zymeworks has built its reputation around a slate of big biopharma deals. In addition to Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) and Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG), GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) have jumped on board the biotech’s primary Azymetric drug development platform. Daiichi Sankyo was the last company to jump on the platform...

Their lead program—ZW25—now in the clinic uses their bispecific tech “to address patient populations with all levels of HER2 expression,” reads the F-1, “including those with low to intermediate HER2-expressing tumors, who are otherwise limited to chemotherapy or hormone therapy.”

Zymeworks now joins a short list of companies that are trying to make a leap into the public market. While Tehrani wanted to pick his time, the biotech IPO market has been shaky in early 2017, with some successes and some failures. We’re a long way from the boom days of 2014...