Zymeworks Presents New Data from Multiple Preclinical Development Programs at 2024 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zymeworks Inc. (Nasdaq: ZYME), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a diverse pipeline of novel, multifunctional biotherapeutics to improve the standard of care for difficult-to-treat diseases, today announced five presentations including new data from its preclinical development-stage programs at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting being held in San Diego, California April 5-10, 2024.

“Our team is looking forward to share new data from our strong portfolio of multispecific antibody therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugates including ZW191, an anticipated 2024 IND candidate,” said Paul Moore, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Zymeworks. “These data provide important new insights highlighting the potential of our candidates to represent major advances in the treatment of cancer while also demonstrating the potential to develop a new generation of novel antibody-drug conjugates and multispecific antibody therapeutics.”

Presentation Highlights

ZW191 - a FRα-targeting antibody-drug conjugate with strong preclinical activity across multiple FRα-expressing indications
Abstract: 1862
Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
Session Title: Antibody-Based Technologies and New Inhibitors

ZW191 is a FRα-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) differentiated by its novel antibody and novel topoisomerase I inhibitor payload. The compelling preclinical activity profile supports ZW191 development across multiple tumor types, including FRα-high/mid/low ovarian cancers and other FRα-expressing indications, including non-small cell lung cancer, endometrial cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer. An investigational new drug (IND) submission or foreign equivalent is planned for 2024.

Key Results:

• Superior internalization, payload delivery, and spheroid penetration to other FRα-targeted multi-specific antibodies.
• Bystander active payload drives activity in settings with heterogeneous FRα expression.
• Well-tolerated, with a highest non-severely toxic dose of 60 mg/kg in non-human primates.
  

Screening novel format antibodies to design bispecific ADCs that address target heterogeneity
Abstract: 2052
Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
Session Title: New Technologies

Inter-patient and intra-tumoral target expression heterogeneity is an obstacle in the design of ADCs that target a single tumor associated antigen (TAA). While bystander active payloads mitigate intra-tumoral target heterogeneity, bispecific ADCs that target two different TAAs independently provide an additional approach to overcome limitations associated with the expression profile of any single target antigen. Critical to this bispecific ADC approach however is identification of the optimal bispecific antibody format suited for payload delivery to two independent tumor antigens. To address this challenge a novel design and screening approach of bispecific ADCs was employed, using FRα and NaPi2b as an exemplary target pair, independently expressed across various cancer types.