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Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Zymeworks at Goldman Sachs Healthcare

 On Wednesday, 11 June 2025, Zymeworks Inc. (NASDAQ:ZYME) presented at the Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025. The company highlighted its strategic focus on partnerships and innovation, discussing both the opportunities and challenges ahead. CEO Ken Galbraith emphasized Zymeworks’ royalty-driven model and its robust R&D pipeline, aiming to generate shareholder value while navigating the complexities of the biotech landscape.

Key Takeaways

  • Zymeworks is leveraging partnerships with BeiGene and Jazz Pharmaceuticals to commercialize Zanadatumab, a HER2-targeted therapy approved for biliary tract cancer.
  • The company’s RIZEN GA-one Phase III study in gastric esophageal adenocarcinoma is expected to yield results later this year.
  • Zymeworks is expanding its innovative pipeline with a focus on solid tumors and autoimmune diseases, including a bispecific antibody for COPD.
  • Financially, Zymeworks expects revenue from milestones and royalties, with a cash runway extending to the second half of 2027.
  • The company is advancing multiple programs into clinical studies, including ADCs and T-cell engagers, with an emphasis on differentiation and clinical response.

Financial Results

  • Revenue Model: Zymeworks is focusing on a royalty-based revenue model, choosing not to commercialize its own innovations initially.
  • Equity Financing: The company has not engaged in equity financing since January 2022.
  • Cash Runway: Zymeworks has guided its cash runway to extend into the second half of 2027.
  • Milestones and Royalties: Expected revenue streams include milestones and royalties from partnerships with Zahira, JNJ, and BeiGene.

Operational Updates

  • Zanadatumab (Zahira): Approved by the FDA for second-line biliary tract cancer. The Phase III RIZEN GA-one study in gastric esophageal adenocarcinoma is anticipated to report results in the latter half of the year.
  • Partnerships: Collaborations with BeiGene in Asia Pacific and Jazz Pharmaceuticals globally for commercialization.
  • Pipeline Expansion: Focus on solid tumors with three antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and T-cell engagers. Recent clinical entries include a folate receptor alpha ADC and a mesothelin bispecific T-cell engager.
  • Autoimmune Program: A bispecific antibody targeting IL-4R alpha and IL-33 for COPD is expected to enter clinical studies next year.

  • Future Outlook

  • Zanadatumab Expansion: Potential for broader application in the HER2 space through additional clinical studies.
  • Pipeline Development: Clinical data from the five by five pipeline will guide attrition and partnering opportunities.
  • New Clinical Studies: The DLL3-targeted tri-specific T-cell engager and the Fly6E targeted ADC are set to progress, with the latter seeking a partnership for advancement.
  • Capital Strategy: Focus on resource prioritization, partnering, and non-dilutive financing to enhance shareholder value.

Q&A Highlights

  • Zanadatumab Data: Phase 2 study results showed a median overall survival of 36.5 months in gastric esophageal adenocarcinoma.
  • Economics of Zahira: Profit-sharing arrangements with Jazz and BeiGene are structured around milestones and royalties.
  • Program Differentiation: Discussed the strategic and competitive differentiation of programs 190 and 171 in their respective landscapes.
  • Safety and Efficacy: The safety profile of the DLL3-targeted tri-specific T-cell engager was elaborated, emphasizing minimal off-tumor activation.

In conclusion, Zymeworks’ presentation at the Goldman Sachs conference underscores its commitment to strategic partnerships and innovation. For a detailed account, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025:



Novavax at Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference

 On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) presented at the Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference, outlining a strategic pivot towards research and development and diversified partnerships. CEO John Jacobs highlighted both opportunities and challenges as the company transitions from a commercial model to one focused on its recombinant protein-based nanoparticle technology and Matrix M adjuvant platform.

Key Takeaways

  • Novavax aims to achieve non-GAAP profitability by 2027 through cost reductions and strategic partnerships.
  • The company plans to cut its workforce by 80% by 2027, significantly lowering expenses.
  • A $175 million milestone was achieved following BLA authorization, signaling financial progress.
  • Sanofi’s minority equity investment and licensing agreements mark a key strategic partnership.
  • An Investor Day is planned for late 2025 to provide updates on pipeline advancements.

Financial Results

  • Liabilities Reduction: Novavax has removed over $2 billion in liabilities since John Jacobs became CEO in 2023.
  • Expense Reduction: More than $1 billion in annual SG&A and R&D expenses have been eliminated.
  • Headcount Reduction: The company is planning an 80% reduction in headcount by 2027.
  • 2025 Revenue Framework: Revenue growth is expected from milestones and royalties.
  • R&D and SG&A Spend: Core spending is targeted to be $250 million or below in 2025.
  • BLA Approval Milestone: Received a $175 million payment in May following BLA authorization.
  • Profitability Target: Non-GAAP P&L profitability is aimed for as early as 2027.
  • Sanofi Equity Investment: Sanofi has made a minority (less than 5%) equity investment in Novavax.

Operational Updates

Sanofi Partnership: Includes co-commercialization of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine and a license for Sanofi to use the Matrix M adjuvant in new vaccine products.

  • R&D Pipeline: Launched four new early-stage programs in Q1 2025, including vaccines for RSV combination, H5N1 avian influenza, varicella zoster virus, and C. difficile.
  • Matrix M Adjuvant: Multiple Material Transfer Agreements signed, including collaborations with two top 10 pharmaceutical companies and a partnered cancer vaccine.
  • R21 Malaria Vaccine: Developed with Oxford University and Serum Institute of India, projected to save 180,000 children’s lives by 2030.
  • Standalone Flu Vaccine: Phase three trial results showed robust immune responses, with plans to partner for further development.

Future Outlook

  • Optimizing Sanofi Partnership: Expecting commercialization of the COVID vaccine in the US and Europe by Fall 2025.
  • Potential Partnerships: Aiming to secure additional partnerships leveraging the technology platform beyond the Sanofi deal.
  • Investor Day: Scheduled for the second half of 2025 to provide further updates on early-stage pipeline advancements.

For a complete understanding of Novavax’s strategic direction, readers are encouraged to review the full transcript of the conference call.

Full transcript - Goldman Sachs 46th Annual Global Healthcare Conference:


Maryland Power Official Warns Of Regular Rolling Blackouts

 Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis—more focused on Marxist reparations schemes to fleece taxpayers, taxing the hell out of Marylanders, having margaritas with migrants, diverting public funds to illegal aliens, pushing radical woke agendas, attempting to install condom machines in elementary schools, and focusing on de-growth policies to neuter the state's power grid—have finally done it.

Their chronic mismanagement, with far-left Governor Wes Moore at the helm, has steered Maryland straight into a power crisis, like the Titanic blindly drifting through an iceberg minefield. The state's fragile grid is now teetering on the edge of crisis, paving the way for 'net-zeroblackouts that could soon rival those seen in Spain or California.

 

As per The Baltimore Sun:

Regular rolling blackouts could become reality for Baltimore-area residents if a lack of energy supplied to the power grid remains unaddressed, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company Vice President Electric Operations Steven Singh warned.

BGE has worked during the last two decades to lessen the number of short-term loads shed events, Singh said, but rolling blackouts — during which power is disconnected from some segments of the community when the grid remains viable — could be implemented if power demand continues to exceed supply.

"It's a huge concern," Singh said. "It's a clear and present issue."

At a recent round table at the University of Maryland … We have a supply and demand issue."

Singh also shared larger concerns with energy shortages that may result as the energy transition away from coal-fired power plants continues, and electric vehicle ownership grows. He said one factor that impacts the region is an increase in data centers — reliant on huge, power-hungry server infrastructure.

We first highlighted Maryland's deepening power crisis in August 2024, citing a Goldman Sachs note circulated to institutional clients:

Also noting:

At the heart of the crisis is the Democratic leadership in the state, consisting of activists who masquerade as efficient managers. Yet they're far from efficient while wearing climate crisis blinders and pushing through disastrous "green" policies—shuttering coal-fired power plants without bringing sufficient new capacity online. All this comes amid surging power demand driven by AI data centers (read here), EV adoption, and re-shoring of industrial operations in the region. 

And because of this epic mismanagement by far-left lawmakers, Marylanders are suffering from the worst power bill crisis in a generation, with 25% of Maryland households unable to pay an energy bill in the past 12 months. 

But let's not wrap this up just yet...

To capture the growing discontent among Maryland residents, we're turning to the comment section of The Baltimore Sun's Facebook post featuring the article.

Here's what people had to say…

For those living in Maryland. Welcome to California. Just wait for the exodus of residents, it's already beginning. We've informed readers multiple times that a large asset manager in the state has instructed its clients not to buy Maryland muni bonds and to leave the state. 

As for those in the area. Time to buy a generator. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/another-reason-leave-top-maryland-power-official-warns-rolling-blackouts

White Lives Don’t Matter


The Knockout GamePolar Bear Hunting. White Girl Bleed a Lot. Flash Mobbing.

There is an entire urban lexicon that describes a nationwide subculture that celebrates anti-white violence, even if progressives dismiss it all as a phony moral panic.

The principal architects of The Great Hate (blue media, academia, Hollywood, government-aligned NGOs) are armchair assassins using the joystick of propaganda to incite the suggestible and the psychotic to anarchy.

Both the advocates and practitioners of violence all vote the same way, for the political party (D) that shares their values.

Progressive scolds always wag their finger and say what America really needs is another discussion about race (as if we ever talk about anything else).

So yes, let’s talk about how the Left deliberately destroyed the black nuclear family, replaced by welfare and the addiction of government dependency.

Let’s talk about the glorification of misogyny (b*tches? hos?), endless urban unrest, casual anti-white racism, and a life of nihilism and feeling forever dissed, with an emphasis on hurting somebody and/or getting high again

Take the oft-repeated shibboleth that diversity is our greatest strength. Is it really? Is all diversity, in all the reassuring hues of the rainbow, always a surpassing moral virtue? An ice cream sundae is more diverse if you add ketchup and anchovies, but does it taste better?

With the huge influx of foreign Muslim students, campuses across America have become a lot more diverse, especially for becoming seething cauldrons of antisemitism and violent anti-white bigotry, along with dumbed down academic standards due to DEI.

The Ivy League loves this arrangement as it hoovers up tens of billions of dollars from Arab countries to promote a pro-Palestinian curricula and accept terror-supporting foreign Muslims as students.

How’s all this diversity working out for Jews and other whites?

Ethnologists do not consider Arabs, Persians, Middle Easterners, and North Africans to be “white,” but the U.S. government does.

Therefore, if a Sunni Arab vandalizes a Manhattan mosque, or assaults a Persian Shiite, the FBI is apt to classify the attack as an anti-Muslim hate crime, as if some white Christian supremacist extremist (WSE) boogeyman was responsible.

In this way, the FBI and virulent hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) can artificially inflate/falsify their statistics, deliberately distorting reality to make it comport with the Left’s bogus narrative about white supremacy.

Over decades, progressives busily imported a new population into America, but not just any new population -- needless to say, people who looked like Swedes or Poles were not welcome.

Progs only want wards of the state from oppositional cultures, oftentimes illiterate people “of color” whose old-world tribal hatreds are diametrically opposed to America’s foundational credos.

Specifically, progs desire impoverished, overwhelmingly male non-white immigrants from the third world who are receptive to the siren song of victimhood and an imagined racial “oppression” that demands retaliation.

For progressives, social disharmony, division, and conflict are the goals. An orgy of hate and violence directed at America’s (narrowly) majority white population is the goal.

Wealthy white progs in and out of government can afford to offer up and sacrifice less fortunate working-class white lives in exchange for moral absolution as a kind of cowardly tradeoff or protection money (just leave me and my immediate circle alone).

We also see this in Western Europe, where thousands of underage working-class white girls have been (and continue to be) groomed and sexually abused by older Muslim male migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

Western Europe’s effete aristocracy, insulated from the destabilization and criminality inside the banlieues and No-Go zones, is prone to dismiss the 12-year-old working class white girl being abused by a dozen adult Pakistani males as a little vixen who probably asked for it.

Daily stabbings of native Europeans are commonplace throughout Western Europe, as are ramming trucks (lorries) into crowds, along with other terrorist mayhem.

Yet, it is all a verboten topic in Western Europe. If you see something, you better not say something. Posting a critical comment on social media can land you in prison for years. Human sewage like Angela Merkel and British prime minister Keir Starmer encourage and celebrate the civilizational suicide they are responsible for.

The progressive Ãœberklasse in America and Europe rely on a strategy of inculcating material envy and racial resentment, and they stay on message without deviation.

One of the great appeals of progressivism is progressives’ promise to unleash society’s psychological id, legalizing and normalizing people’s ugliest, darkest fantasies (whether violently preying on random whites, diddling little children, shooting and burning Jews or health-care CEOs or Trump voters, all of it contextualized or righteously celebrated as “restorative justice”).

Most people aren’t persuaded by facts, logic, and data points. Progressive thought leaders understand and exploit these limitations, using simple slogans, images, and soundbites to elicit visceral emotional reactions.

Blue media manufacture sensationalized stories whose factual basis is flimsy at best, and then extrapolate from there (i.e. the cherubic George Floyd didn’t overdose, he was “murdered” by a white cop; cops gun down thousands of innocent blacks each year; all whites everywhere are racist colonizers and genocidal interlopers; white/western civilization needs to be burned down, etc.).

Nonstop incendiary incitement and carefully worded exhortations to exact racial vengeance on whitey strongly resonates with Democrat voters.

Leftists playact as if America in 2025 is no different from Alex Haley’s fictional and wildly exaggerated slave epic Roots. And every white K-12 student is admonished to feel guilty and make atonement for the long-ago racist murder of Emmett Till (1955).

Yet, there are many thousands of white Emmett Tills whose stories are never told by legacy media. They are whitewashed from historical memory, a mere statistic. Their lives and deaths don’t matter.

Neurotic attention whores like Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, a parody of a newsman, grovels with cringing emotive displays and noble lies of omission to shape perceptions and trigger rage against innocent whites.

DEI and its various antecedents like racial quotas and affirmative action (who could possibly be against such a positive-sounding euphemism?) have effectively functioned as Jim Crow-type restrictions negatively affecting untold millions of whites for over half a century.

Yet, we are all socially conditioned to not question sacred cows like black privilege or America’s racialized caste and spoils system.

There is nothing liberal (defined as a live-and-let-live ethos) about progressives. They are quite literally race-obsessed neo-Nazis, just with black bloc and keffiyehs as external accoutrements instead of armbands and swastikas.

If everything is racist, then nothing is racist. If sports teams with names honoring Native Americans (Seminoles, Indians, Redskins) are racist, then Fighting Irish, Vikings, and Celtics are racist names too. Logically, you cannot have it both ways (yet progressives do manage to have it both ways).

The default strategy of constantly defaming whites as racists is meant to dehumanize whites and render them morally unqualified to coexist in society. With the table thus set, there is now a progressive moral justification for violence against such a devalued, objectified demographic.

Note how you hear no condemnation of today’s LA rioters from blue media or Democrat leaders. To paraphrase Joe Bidenthere is no daylight between Democrat demagogues and their racist, violent voters.

The brothers are previous contributors to American Thinker.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/06/white_lives_don_t_matter.html

MSM addresses anarchy in LA: ‘Why burning EVs isn’t a good idea’

 


Elizabeth Weise at USA Today decided to comment on the anarchy that’s currently raging across Los Angeles, and here’s her two cents: if you’re going to light other people’s cars on fire, at least make sure it’s not an electric vehicle, because that would be bad for the environment and your fellow rioters. (On the contrary: perhaps we can encourage them to stand as close as possible to the flames and take big deep breaths?)

Here’s Weise’s absolutely insane headline: “Waymos are being torched in LA. Why burning EVs isn’t a good idea.” She sets the stage for the reader, covering that which we already know—leftists are once again burning and looting a city in a violent rebuff of common sense, law, and order (though she doesn’t exactly say it like that)—before she details the heightened consequences of E.V. fires compared to traditional combustion-engine fires, highlighting how particularly bad these sorts of fires are for the environment, and those in the vicinity.

Utter madness.

Let me help Weise out: Not only is it a “bad idea” to burn E.V.s while engaged in psychotic mayhem—because you’ve been whipped into a hysteria to resist deportations, but only as long as they’re occurring under a Republican president—but it’s a “bad idea” to burn cars in lawless fashion… period.

This is just the umpteenth example of why we call the fake news, the fake news.

Maybe Weise should have also stressed that it’s “bad idea” to try to light police horses on fire? Maybe she could have added that it’s a “bad idea” to try and kill law enforcement officers by dropping cement blocks from overpasses? Would Weise consider it a “bad idea” to “protest” deportations by looting stores selling high-end fashion and expensive gadgets? I thought these people hated the West, “colonialism,” and “consumerism,” yet there they are grabbing all the luxury capitalist products they can hold in their greedy mitts.

And the Los Angeles book stores breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing they’re once again, immune to the “protests” of the left.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/06/msm_addresses_anarchy_in_la_why_burning_evs_isn_t_a_good_idea.html