VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zymeworks Inc. today announced the closing of a US$ 61.5 million Series A mezzanine financing to support the advancement of its Azymetric™ therapeutics pipeline. The financing was supported by a syndicate of U.S. and Canadian institutional investors, including all existing institutional and strategic investors.

The financing was co-led by new investors BDC Capital and Lumira Capital, and joined by existing Zymeworks investors Eli Lilly and Company, Celgene, CTI Life Sciences Fund, and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ. New investors in the financing include Perceptive Advisors, Teralys Capital, Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, Brace Pharma Capital, Merlin Nexus and others. Proceeds of the financing will support clinical development of Zymeworks’ lead therapeutic candidates, ZW25 and ZW33, which the Company plans to move into clinical development later this year.

Dion Madsen, Senior Managing Partner in BDC Capital’s Healthcare Venture fund will join Zymeworks’ board of Directors, and Dr. Daniel Hétu, Managing Director in Lumira Capital, will join as an observer.

“This financing provides Zymeworks the capital and resources to move multiple potentially game-changing therapeutic candidates not only into the clinic, but through to meaningful clinical inflection points,” said Dr. Ali Tehrani, President and Chief Executive Officer of Zymeworks. “Furthermore, this financing adds the experience of seasoned U.S. and Canadian biotech investors, and demonstrates the support of our existing strategic and institutional investor base as we look forward to the next stage in our growth and evolution as a leader in the field of bispecific and multivalent antibody therapeutics.”

Added Mr. Madsen, “BDC Capital is excited to provide acceleration capital to Zymeworks at this important time in the company’s evolution. The company is building the leading technology platform for targeted therapies and the addition of this capital enables the company to advance life enhancing therapies into clinical testing.”

Added Dr. Hétu, “The potential of Zymeworks’ science and technology are underscored by the significant commitments made by leading oncology companies and biotech investors. Having closely followed the progress of the company for many years, we are excited to be a part of Zymeworks’ growth as they further leverage the Azymetric™ platform and their pipeline to build an enduring company with the potential to help many patients.”

MTS Securities, LLC, an affiliate of MTS Health Partners, and BMO Capital Markets Corp. acted as advisors to Zymeworks in the transaction.

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 cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The company’s novel Azymetric™, AlbuCORE™, and EFECT™ platforms, and its proprietary ZymeCAD™ structure-guided protein engineering technology, enable the development of highly potent bi-specific antibodies and multivalent protein therapeutics 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.