CEO Today USA Awards

WASHINGTON www.ceotodaymagazine.com 116 CEO Today USAAwards 2018 DR. ALI TEHRANI President & CEO of Zymeworks FIRM PROFILE Zymeworks Inc. is a publicly listed (TSX/NYSE: ZYME), clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of next-generation multifunctional biotherapeutics, initially focused on the treatment of cancer. Zymeworks’ suite of complementary therapeutic platforms and its fully integrated drug development engine provide the flexibility and compatibility to precisely engineer and develop highly differentiated product candidates. Zymeworks’ lead product candidate, ZW25, is a novel bispecific antibody currently being evaluated in an adaptive Phase 1 clinical trial. Zymeworks’ second candidate, ZW49, is a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and is expected to be the subject of an Investigational New Drug (IND) filing in 2018. Zymeworks is also advancing a deep pipeline of preclinical product candidates and discovery- stage programs in immuno-oncology and other therapeutic areas. In addition to Zymeworks’ wholly owned pipeline, its therapeutic platforms have been further leveraged through multiple strategic partnerships with global biopharmaceutical companies. Zymeworks was incorporated in 2003 to address a need in the pharmaceutical and chemical markets that was not served by the existing protein simulation and engineering approaches. At the time, the market and scientific community were segregated into two very distinct approaches. The first approach included widely distributed, open-source academic projects that were advancing the science at a very rapid pace, however sometimes at the expense of commercially relevant concerns including usability, modularity, documentation, and an overall focus on the needs of pharmaceutical and chemical companies. The second approach included legacy in silico platforms that had been adapted for certain specific commercial purposes, but failed to capture recent advances in protein biochemistry or computing architecture. Zymeworks addressed the shortcomings of both of these approaches. The ZymeCAD™ engine was designed and built from the ground up to be the most comprehensive platform for in silico protein modeling and engineering, incorporating advanced hot spot identification and mutagenesis tools in a modular and scalable platform. Today, Zymeworks has successfully leveraged the ZymeCAD™ engine into leading biologics platforms that enables the development of several therapeutic candidates. Zymeworks is leveraging its novel antibody and alternative protein platforms to develop a diverse pipeline of novel antibody therapeutics that includes first-in-class and best-in-class candidates to help mitigate the risk and uncertainty associated with new target discovery and validation. Zymeworks intends to clinically develop a number of therapeutic candidates and plans to partner a subset once meaningful clinical inflection points are reached. Zymeworks is also forming highly-strategic collaborative drug development partnerships with major pharmaceutical partners to provide them access to, while expanding and diversifying the therapeutic applications for, Zymeworks’ platforms. Throughout the lifespan of these programs Zymeworks benefits from upfront payments, near-term research and development milestones and long-term royalty streams. ABOUTDR. ALI TEHRANI Dr. Tehrani is one of our co-founders and currently serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Tehrani has served as a member of our Board of Directors since the Company’s inception in September 2003. He has been an integral part of many of our corporate achievements including raising seed and angel financing and overseeing our technical operations and patent filings. Dr. Tehrani holds both Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts, and has a Doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia. While completing his Ph.D. degree he co-founded the Student Biotechnology Network, for which he received the UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for Outstanding Leadership in 2002. Dr. Tehrani has served as a board director for the Student Biotechnology Network and LifeSciences British Columbia, on the MITACS Industrial Advisory Board, and on BIOTECanada’s Industrial and Environmental Committee. Currently, he is a member of the board of directors of Creatus Biosciences Inc. and CQDM and a Council Member on British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council. www.zymeworks.com