Zymeworks Inc. Announces Collaborative Research Agreements for Computational Antibody Modeling and the Development of Tuberculosis Therapeutic Agents

Business Wire, Oct 31, 2007

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Zymeworks Inc. announced today that it is has entered into two research collaborations with the laboratory of Dr. B. Mario Pinto of Simon Fraser University in conjunction with funding from ACCELERATE BC - BC's Graduate Research Internship Program administered by MITACS, a Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE).

"We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Pinto and members of his lab, and believe these projects provide further endorsement of applicability of Zymeworks' technology to the field of protein therapeutics," says Dr. Ali Tehrani, President and CEO of Zymeworks Inc. "Dr. Pinto is a recognized leader in NMR and molecular modeling protocols and the projects provide Zymeworks with access to challenging problems to further validate and accelerate the development of the ZymeCAD[TM] platform while supporting the expansion of our customer and product pipeline.

"The collaborations in the fields of antibody modeling and the development of an enzyme-based tuberculosis therapeutic agent build upon Zymeworks' expertise in enzyme and antibody engineering while leveraging the world-class facilities and talent at Simon Fraser University," says Dr. Tehrani. "MITACS and ACCELERATE BC have played an important role in allowing this collaboration to happen, and hopefully in making a difference in the lives of TB patients globally."

For these collaborations, three members of Dr. Pinto's lab at SFU will work with Zymeworks, undertaking research with company personnel, collecting data and building their understanding of the research challenge. The interns and post-doctoral fellow will also work closely with Dr. Pinto and his team at SFU incorporating their findings and results with data generated at his laboratory facilities.

"These new collaborations clearly demonstrate that ACCELERATE BC is helping to connect companies, such as Zymeworks, with the world-class expertise within BC's universities," says Dr. Arvind Gupta, CEO and Scientific Director of MITACS.

About Zymeworks Inc.

Zymeworks is a computational biotechnology company that combines proprietary molecular simulation technology with high performance computing to research and develop industrial enzymes and protein therapeutics. Zymeworks uses its proprietary ZymeCAD[TM] molecular simulation platform and world-class team of enzyme engineers to alter enzyme substrate specificity and antibody-binding affinities. The ZymeCAD[TM] platform creates a highly detailed computational modeling environment for accurate and predictive semi-rational protein engineering and generates physical and chemical insights required to address the specific needs of Zymeworks' customers and advance its protein-therapeutics pipeline.

About MITACS

MITACS is a Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) for mathematical sciences hosted by Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. The only Canadian organization of its kind, it focuses on developing mathematical solutions in five of the economy's fastest growing sectors: biomedical and health, environment and natural resources, information processing, risk and finance and communication, networks and security. In 2007, MITACS expanded its Internship Program in the mathematical sciences under the new name ACCELERATE BC. This was made possible by $10 million in new funding from the Ministry of Advanced Education of the Government of British Columbia, making the program available to all university faculties and disciplines at BC's universities. For more information, visit www.mitacsinternships.ca.

About Dr. B. Mario Pinto

Dr. Pinto was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Ph.D. from Queen's University. Dr. Pinto served as Chair of the Chemistry Department from 1999-2004, and is currently Vice-President, Research at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Pinto received the 1992 Horace S. Isbell Award of the American Chemical Society, the 1993 Merck Frosst Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the 2002 Bernard Belleau Award of the CSC, and the 2005 British Columbia Innovation Council Frontiers in Research Award. He is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada in 2003. Dr. Pinto is a pioneer in the field of chemical biology, having developed novel NMR/molecular modeling protocols for protein structure determination and the study of ligand topographies essential for drug and vaccine design, and is the founder of Mimos Therapeutics, Inc. With an exceptionally strong record of research funding, Dr. Pinto also has a proven ability to attract investment. He has brought in approximately $5 million in funding as Principal Investigator since 2000, and has been co-PI on 20 grants in this same time period.