Biotech falls behind: Innovation must be "idealism" investment is not

3.6 billion US dollars BIOTECH fall behind: Innovation requires "idealism", but the investment is not

Source: amino observation/Zhu Lai

In January 2022, Zymeworks, a US -listed innovative pharmaceutical company, "fired" the former CEO Ali Tehrani.

The original CEO is Kenneth Galbraith: an old capital of capital sold for many Biotech sold.

Whenever a board of directors changes management, there will be two things that will happen: either the company needs a new strategy or may be preparing to "sell".

The purpose of Zymeworks replaced management may be the latter.

In April this year, Zymeworks received a non -binding proposal from All Blue Falcon FZE, with a market value corresponding to the acquisition price of $ 770 million.

It seems that this is an excellent transaction. At that time, the market value of Zymeworks was hovering around $ 300 million, and the purchase price was twice higher than the market price.

Investors are also looking forward to the acquisition case, and the secondary market responds to a single -day increase of 25%.

Unfortunately, the acquisition was eventually rejected by the new CEO Kenneth Galbraith. The reason is:

He believes that the value of the company's platform has been seriously underestimated, saying that the proposal is "lack of credibility" and "speculation".

It can also be understood. For a long time, Zymeworks has attracted much attention from the capital market because of its technical platform strength, and its market value of the secondary market was close to $ 4 billion.

However, too "idealism" in the capital market may not be practical. Today, Zymeworks's stock price has returned to liberation, and the market value once fell below $ 300 million.

/ 01 /

It is highly sought after due to the technical platform, and the market value has reached 3.6 billion US dollars.

In 2017, Zymeworks, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, attracted market attention.

Although no products have been approved for listing since its establishment, it has signed cooperation agreements in many large pharmaceutical factories such as Merck, Pfizer, and GSK, and the down payment is soft. Obviously, Zymeworks has two brushes.

indeed so. The Pharmaceutical Factory is favored by Azymetric, Zymelink, such as Zymeworks, developed "multi -resistance" and ADC drug technology platforms.

As the so -called, monoclonal anti -resistance to target, dual -resistant, ADC viewing platform. Due to the particularity and diversity of ADC drugs, due to the particularity and diversity of the structure, there are so many potential problems such as beef hair. The platforms that solve research and development technology problems are also full of flowers.

It seems that Zymeworks's many platforms are expected to bring "poisoning and efficiency" effects in drug development.

For example, the Azymetric platform can convert monocytic antibodies into bilateral antibodies. At the same time, combined with multiple non -overlapping tables on the same goal, to improve tumor -specific targeting and efficacy, while reducing toxicity and resistance to resistance possibility.

At the same time, the double -specific antibodies developed by Azymetric also retain the ideal drug -like characteristics of monoclonal antibodies, including half -length, stability, and low immunogenic potential. In this regard, the company said "increased the possibility of successful research and development."

The Zymelink platform is a set of proprietary cytotoxin, stable joints and coupling technologies, which are expected to provide the advantages of increasing delivery effects and reducing off -target effects. With this technology, Zymeworks won the 2019 World ADC Award for Best Platform Technology Award.

In addition, ZyMeworks also has Protect (which can improve the effect of systemic toxicity) and Effect (the main effect is customization and optimization of immune response) technology platform.

The four major technical platforms of Zymeworks are not independent, but compatible with each other. For example, Azymetric and Zymelink can develop bilateral ADC drugs.

Not only are many pharmaceutical companies looking forward to Zymeworks, the same is true of the capital market.

At the beginning of the listing in 2017, the market value of Zymeworks was less than 500 million, but the market value continued to rise. In March 2021, at the peak of biotechnology investment boom, the company's market value once reached 3.64 billion US dollars.

/ 02 /

The market value shrinks to $ 300 million, and the "good" technology platform also needs product support

Shengji beginning decline is the law. Beginning at the beginning of last year, under the influence of many factors such as macro policies, the prosperity of the American biotechnology industry has declined sharply, and the stock price of pharmaceutical companies has fallen.

In this unprecedented Great Depression, Zymeworks failed to be spared. Today, Zymeworks has only $ 322 million in market value. However, behind this is not only industry factors, but also the company's own reasons:

Zymeworks's technology platform that has attracted much attention from the market does not seem to be able to fight as expected.

The core products of Zymeworks are ZW25 (Zanidatamab) and ZW49. Zanidatamab is a new type of targeted HER2 dual -resistant developed through the Azymetric platform. It can also target the two different tables of the sub -2 and subunit 4 of HER2 extracellular regions, which may bring better treatment effects.

ZW49 is a dual -target Her2 ADC developed based on Zanidatamab. It combines the unique design of Zanidatamab with the proprietary Zymelink cytotoxin and cutable joints. According to the company's ideas, this design is expected to produce many functions such as "increasing HER2 binding density and inducing HER2 receptor gathering", which brings better treatment effects.

In this regard, Zymeworks is also full of confidence, thinking that ZW49 is the best HER2 targeted ADC with the same kind. But the fact tells us that behind the plump ideals, it is often the skinny.

On September 4th, the company released by ESMO in 2022 revealed the first phase of clinical data of ZW49 therapy HER2+patients.

The results show that the ZW49 does have the effect of reducing drug reduction. In less than 10%of patients, patients with 3 or higher patients will not appear interstitial pneumonia like DS8201.

However, ZW49 does not seem to have "increased efficiency": 29 patients who receive 2 doses of treatment, ORR (objective relief rate) is only 28%.

You know, in the field of HER2 ADC, the most capable DS8201, all indications ORR basically exceeds 50%. ZW49's clinical data, even "unable to beat" domestic ADC.

This not only means that the clinical data of ZW49 has basically declared ZW49's compete for exiting HER 2 ADC; it also means that there may be a long way to go between its platform and successful commercialization.

On September 6, affected by the news, Zymeworks's stock price fell 28.85%, which accelerated the company's market value shrinkage process.

/ 03 /

If you miss $ 770 million to acquire, can Zymeworks still return to its peak?

Like all BIOTECH, after the stock price fell sharply, Zymeworks was growing.

For biotechnology companies, because there are no products, they have been approved to be listed, and how far can they go to rely on recycling. This is also the dilemma of Zymeworks.

As of the end of June 2022, the cash assets on Zymeworks' accounts were 224 million US dollars. It seems that Zymeworks's funds are still very abundant.

But this is not actually the case. In the second quarter of this year, Zymeworks's operating cash flow was net outflow of $ 110 million. At present, there are not many clinical clinicals that Zymeworks advances.

This also means two points: First, Zymeworks is temporarily difficult for self -blood; second, the company also needs to continue to burn money to go ashore.

Earlier, the market was looking forward to Zymeworks being acquired or re -financing. Now after the acquisition is blocked, the company's path to continue to go, there may be only one left:

At least one major financing is required in a challenging financing environment.

However, after missing the offer of 700 million US dollars, Zymeworks not only has a lower market value, but also the "technical platform" does not seem to be able to fight, and the difficulty of re -financing is undoubtedly increasing.

A good thing is that the new management team of Zymeworks is seeking to update the company's strategy, and the streamlined strategy is "thriving".

So, with the efforts of Kenneth Galbraith, can Zymeworks still return to its peak?

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