VIDEO - Zymeworks CEO: 2019 Will be “Replete” with News

This year’s Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference (BBHIC) drew more attendees than ever before, with nearly 600 investors and 1,100 registrants from the likes of Canada, the US and Europe.

Roughly 60 companies conducted corporate presentations over the jam-packed two day conference, making the 2019 show a roaring success for everyone in attendance.

The story was very much the same for Zymeworks (TSX:ZYME,NYSE:ZYME), a Vancouver-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. Its president and CEO, Ali Tehrani, gave a corporate presentation on the show’s first day, and the Investing News Network (INN) had the opportunity to catch up with him immediately following his talk.

“It was great to see a lot of familiar faces and it was wonderful to see a lot of new faces in the room,” Tehrani said when asked about his company’s presentation. “It was wonderful to be able to share our progress on ZW25 and ZW49.”

ZW25 is the company’s lead candidate, and is currently being tested in a number of clinical trials in Canada and the US to treat patients with HER2-expressing cancers. ZW49 is Zymeworks’ second lead candidate, based off the same framework as ZW25 but carrying the cytotoxic ZymeLink payload.

Tehrani gave additional insight on the company’s advancement of ZW25 into a global Phase 2 clinical trial, which was announced in mid-April. The trial intends to evaluate candidates when paired with standard care of chemotherapy for first-line treatment of HER-positive metastatic gastric, gastroesophageal junction and esophageal adenocarcinomas.

“Gastric cancer is a huge problem around the world, but specifically in the Asia-Pacific,” he said, explaining that most patients eventually succumb to the illness. “The opportunity to develop an asset that could give these patients … the opportunity to live their lives normally, to be able to live a long, happy life, is a tremendous opportunity that we take very seriously.”

In addition to the company’s two lead drug candidates, Tehrani also touched on future milestones Zymeworks has coming up this year that investors can watch for.

“The year will be replete and full of announcements to come,” he said, noting that the company will provide a progress report on ZW25 and ZW49 sometime in the middle of the year and should provide a more detailed report on the progress of its clinical assets towards the end of the year.

Watch the interview above for more on what Tehrani had to say. For more of our BBHIC interviews, you can watch them here on our YouTube channel.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.