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Zealand Pharma: From Danish Peptide Lab to Obesity Drug Powerhouse
I. Introduction & Episode Roadmap
In the autumn of 2024, something extraordinary happened in the otherwise orderly world of Danish biotechnology. Zealand Pharma, a company that most investors outside Scandinavia had never heard of, was quietly completing Phase 1b trials for a weight loss drug that would soon attract the attention of one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. By March 2025, Roche would pay $1.65 billion upfront—with total potential consideration of up to $5.3 billion—for the rights to co-develop Zealand's amylin analog petrelintide.
As of September 2025, Zealand Pharma's stock traded at $72.46 with a market cap of $5.1 billion and 70.4 million shares outstanding. This represented a stunning transformation for a company that, just a few years earlier, was primarily known as the inventor of a diabetes drug licensed to Sanofi and a partner in an obesity program that seemed perpetually overshadowed by Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.
Zealand Pharma is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines. More than 10 drug candidates invented by Zealand have advanced into clinical development, of which two have reached the market. This track record—a near-impossible achievement for a company of Zealand's size—speaks to something deeper about the organization's capabilities and the strategic vision that has guided it from a small Copenhagen spin-out to a key challenger in the obesity drug revolution.
The central question this analysis seeks to answer: How did a small Copenhagen peptide lab become a key player challenging Novo Nordisk in the obesity drug revolution? The answer involves a 25-year journey through the art of pharmaceutical partnerships, the science of peptide engineering, and the remarkable timing of catching the GLP-1/obesity wave at precisely the right moment.
The story unfolds across several interlocking themes. First, there's the platform model—Zealand's deliberate choice to be inventors rather than full-scale commercializers, licensing its discoveries to pharmaceutical giants while retaining meaningful economics. Second, there's the science of peptides—small protein molecules that Zealand has learned to design, modify, and optimize in ways that few other companies can match. Third, there's the strategic evolution—from pure-play diabetes to a multi-pronged obesity and rare disease portfolio that has positioned Zealand at the center of one of healthcare's most lucrative market opportunities.
The global GLP-1 agonists weight loss drugs market size was estimated at $13.84 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $48.84 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.54%. The market for GLP-1 agonist weight loss drugs is experiencing rapid growth, driven by rising obesity rates, increasing health awareness, and strong clinical efficacy. Zealand's timing couldn't be better. And yet, as we'll explore, this wasn't pure luck—it was the culmination of two decades of methodical capability-building that left Zealand perfectly positioned when the obesity drug revolution finally arrived.
II. Denmark's Biotech Ecosystem & Founding Story (1997-2003)
The Medicon Valley Context
To understand Zealand Pharma, you must first understand the peculiar advantages of being a peptide company headquartered in Copenhagen. Zealand Pharma forms part of the Danish-Swedish life science cluster Medicon Valley. This cluster isn't just an academic concept—it's a living ecosystem where university researchers, pharmaceutical veterans, and entrepreneurial scientists have been trading ideas and talent for decades.
Denmark's unique position in the global pharmaceutical landscape traces back to one company above all others: Novo Nordisk. The insulin pioneer, founded in 1923, didn't just become the world's leader in diabetes treatment—it created an entire generation of scientists with deep expertise in peptide hormones, protein engineering, and metabolic disease biology. When young researchers left Novo or completed their PhDs at Danish universities, many harbored ambitions to build something new. Copenhagen in the late 1990s was fertile ground for such dreams.
The academic infrastructure mattered enormously. The University of Copenhagen and other Danish institutions maintained strong programs in biochemistry, pharmacology, and peptide chemistry. Unlike many biotech clusters that struggle to find qualified scientists, Copenhagen offered a steady supply of talent trained specifically in the disciplines that would define Zealand's future.
The Founding Team
Zealand Pharma A/S was founded by Bjarne Due Larsen, Lars Hellerung Christiansen, Leif Helth Jensen, Dan Buxbom, and Florian Schönharting in 1997 as Peptide Probe Technologies ApS, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of peptide-based medicine.
The founding team represented a convergence of academic peptide expertise and entrepreneurial ambition. Bjarne Due Larsen, who would become one of Zealand's most important scientific voices, brought deep knowledge of peptide chemistry and the practical challenges of turning laboratory molecules into drugs. The group had identified what they believed was a significant opportunity: while pharmaceutical companies were increasingly focused on small molecule drugs and, later, on large antibody therapeutics, peptides occupied an underexplored middle ground with unique advantages.
In 1998, the company changed its name to Zealand Pharma ApS following the addition of several new members, including Eva Steiness and former Lundbeck personnel. This expansion brought operational and industry expertise to complement the founding team's scientific capabilities. The inclusion of former Lundbeck employees was particularly meaningful—Lundbeck, another Danish pharmaceutical company focused on brain diseases, had a culture of rigorous drug development that would influence Zealand's early organizational DNA.
The Vision: Why Peptides?
Since founding in 1998, Zealand Pharma has built a core expertise in the discovery, design, and development of therapeutic peptides. This expertise has led to an R&D pipeline of innovative investigational candidates designed to address a broad range of disease areas.
The founders' bet on peptides required conviction that the pharmaceutical industry was underinvesting in this molecular class. Peptides—chains of amino acids typically ranging from a few to about 50 residues—occupied a unique therapeutic space. They were smaller and simpler than antibodies, which meant they could potentially be manufactured more easily and dosed differently. Yet they were more complex than traditional small molecule drugs, allowing them to interact with biological targets in sophisticated ways.
Zealand Pharma is a biotechnology company that offers scientific expertise in turning peptides into medicines. This simple statement captures the company's core capability: not just discovering interesting peptide sequences, but solving the myriad technical challenges—stability, bioavailability, half-life extension, manufacturing—that had prevented peptides from achieving their therapeutic potential.
The technical differentiation from both small molecules and antibodies was significant. Small molecules can often be taken orally and have well-understood pharmacokinetics, but their targets are limited to certain types of proteins (primarily enzymes and receptors with accessible binding sites). Antibodies can target almost anything on the cell surface with exquisite specificity, but they're expensive to manufacture, must be injected, and can't easily reach intracellular targets. Peptides, in theory, could offer some of the best features of both: the ability to modulate complex signaling pathways (like hormones do naturally) while being more manufacturable than antibodies.
The challenge was making this theory work in practice. Most peptide hormones are rapidly degraded in the body, limiting their usefulness as drugs. Zealand's founders believed they could solve this problem through systematic peptide engineering—modifying natural hormone sequences to improve stability, extend duration of action, and optimize therapeutic properties.
This early vision would prove prescient. The company's first major success—lixisenatide, a GLP-1 analog licensed to Sanofi—demonstrated that Zealand could indeed engineer peptides with clinically useful properties. That success would open doors to partnerships and capabilities that eventually led to the obesity drug portfolio that defines Zealand today.
III. The Sanofi Partnership: First Major Validation (2003-2016)
The Lixisenatide Deal
For a young biotech company, nothing matters more than validation. You can have brilliant science, world-class scientists, and a compelling vision—but until a major pharmaceutical company writes a large check for your technology, it's all just potential. In 2003, Zealand achieved that validation.
Aventis and Zealand Pharma signed a licensing deal in 2003. The deal granted what would become Sanofi (following the Aventis-Sanofi merger) global development and commercial rights to lixisenatide, a once-daily GLP-1 receptor agonist invented by Zealand for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
The timing was fortunate. GLP-1 agonists were emerging as a promising new class of diabetes drugs, but the field was early. Eli Lilly had just received FDA approval for Byetta (exenatide) in 2005, establishing the proof-of-concept for GLP-1 drugs. Zealand's lixisenatide offered a differentiated profile—a "prandial" GLP-1 agonist designed specifically to control post-meal blood sugar spikes.
Lixisenatide is a new, once-daily prandial GLP-1 peptide agonist invented by Zealand Pharma. Global rights to the product are licensed to Sanofi for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in combination with basal insulin.
The Long Road to Approval
The Sanofi deal would generate multiple milestone payments over more than a decade, providing crucial capital to fund Zealand's operations while the company built additional programs.
Zealand Pharma received a milestone payment of USD 20 million from Sanofi following the successful completion of the global GetGoal Phase III clinical trial program for lixisenatide. Lixisenatide is a once-daily investigational GLP-1 agonist for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, invented by Zealand Pharma and licensed to Sanofi. The drug candidate was assessed by Sanofi in the GetGoal program, which involved more than 4,500 patients with Type 2 diabetes.
The Phase III program's scale—4,500 patients across 11 clinical studies—demonstrated Sanofi's serious commitment to the drug and provided Zealand with additional validation of its peptide engineering capabilities.
On Monday, 4 February 2013, Zealand Pharma along with Sanofi announced that Lyxumia had been granted Marketing Authorization in Europe for the treatment of adults with Type 2 diabetes. This represented a major milestone: Zealand had invented a drug that completed the full development journey from discovery through regulatory approval.
The US approval took longer. In September 2013, Sanofi withdrew the New Drug Application for lixisenatide in the U.S., which included early interim results from the ongoing ELIXA cardiovascular outcome study. The decision followed discussions with the FDA regarding its proposed process for the review of the interim results. Sanofi believed that potential public disclosure of early interim data could compromise the integrity of the ongoing ELIXA study. The withdrawal was not related to safety issues or deficiencies in the NDA.
This regulatory complexity delayed US market entry significantly, but lixisenatide eventually received FDA approval in July 2016 under the brand name Adlyxin. The drug launched in the US market in January 2017.
The Combination Product: Soliqua/Suliqua
The lixisenatide story didn't end with the standalone drug. Sanofi recognized that combining a GLP-1 agonist with basal insulin could offer compelling benefits for patients who needed both glucose-lowering mechanisms.
Under its license agreement with Sanofi covering Lyxumia and any combination product including lixisenatide, a milestone was achieved in the advance of LixiLan, the once-daily single injection Lantus/Lyxumia combination product, towards start of Phase III development. The milestone relates to the approval of the first Phase III study protocol for LixiLan by a Health Authority, triggering a USD 15 million payment to Zealand.
The combination product was approved as Soliqua 100/33 in the US and Suliqua in Europe, offering a convenient once-daily injection that combined Sanofi's market-leading basal insulin Lantus with lixisenatide.
Under the license agreement with Sanofi, covering lixisenatide and any combination products including lixisenatide, Zealand was eligible to up to USD 160 million in remaining milestones. Further, Zealand received tiered low double-digit percentage royalties on Sanofi's global sales.
Monetizing the Asset
By 2023, the lixisenatide franchise had matured. While the products remained important for patients with Type 2 diabetes, they faced intense competition from newer GLP-1 drugs—particularly Novo Nordisk's semaglutide products. Zealand made a strategic decision: convert the recurring royalty stream into upfront capital that could fund pipeline expansion.
Royalty Pharma announced that it had acquired future royalty streams and $85 million of potential commercial milestones on Sanofi's Soliqua 100/33/Suliqua and Lyxumia/Adlyxin from Zealand Pharma, for $205 million in cash, to be paid when the transaction closed in December 2023.
This transaction illustrated Zealand's evolving strategic priorities. Rather than collecting modest but predictable royalties over many years, the company chose to crystallize value immediately—capital that could accelerate development of its next-generation obesity programs. The decision reflected management's conviction that Zealand's future lay in the obesity space, not in sustaining legacy diabetes royalties.
IV. Going Public & Building the Platform (2010-2018)
The IPO
By 2010, Zealand had achieved enough to merit public market status. The Sanofi partnership was generating milestones, the lixisenatide program was advancing toward approval, and the company had begun building additional pipeline programs.
Mats Blom joined Zealand Pharma as CFO in 2010, and led the company to its IPO on the Nasdaq Copenhagen Main Market in November 2010.
In the IPO, the company issued approximately 4.3 million new shares at an offer price of DKK 86 (EUR 11.5) per new share, raising gross proceeds of approximately DKK 373 (€50) million. The offering involved retail investors in Denmark as well as Danish and international institutional investors.
Zealand Pharma was one of a small group of nominees selected from all mediscience companies in Europe, and chosen as the winner of the Transaction of the Year Award at the European Mediscience Awards 2011. The award was made as a result of achieving "that very rare feat, a mediscience IPO. Despite difficult markets, this wasn't any IPO either – it was the largest IPO across Europe in the period under review, raising EUR 50 million."
"The IPO primarily gave us critical growth capital needed to continue our research and development. In addition, the credibility and visibility that a listing brings has really helped us in discussions with potential partners and clients, both in Denmark and internationally," said Mats Blom, CFO of Zealand Pharma.
The public listing accomplished multiple objectives. It provided capital to expand R&D. It created a currency (shares) for potential acquisitions. It enhanced credibility with prospective partners. And it established a valuation benchmark that would attract institutional investors.
The US Listing
Zealand Pharma completed its dual listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the US in August 2017.
During his tenure, Mats Blom oversaw the Company's 2010 IPO on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen, raising USD 50 million, a 2016 USD 22 million Directed issue and a 2017 listing on Nasdaq Global Markets in New York raising USD 90 million.
The US listing was essential for accessing American biotech investors—the world's deepest pool of capital for life sciences companies. US institutional investors bring not just capital but expertise, networks, and the kind of long-term orientation that emerging biotech companies need. The listing also positioned Zealand for potential future partnerships with US pharmaceutical companies.
The Boehringer Ingelheim Partnership
The same year Zealand went public, it struck a deal that would eventually become one of its most valuable assets—though the path would prove circuitous.
In June 2011, Zealand Pharma and Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, jointly announced an exclusive global licence and collaboration agreement for dual-acting glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonists for the treatment of patients with Type-2 diabetes and patients with obesity. As part of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim obtained global development and commercialisation rights to ZP2929, Zealand Pharma's lead glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonist drug candidate.
Zealand Pharma was eligible to receive total projected milestone payments of up to €376 million for ZP2929.
The scientific rationale was compelling. By combining glucagon and GLP-1 receptor activity in a single molecule, the dual agonist could potentially deliver superior metabolic effects—reducing blood sugar through GLP-1 activation while also boosting energy expenditure through glucagon activation. This "best of both worlds" approach held promise for both diabetes and obesity.
In January 2014, Zealand and Boehringer Ingelheim decided to change the development program with the selection of a new lead compound that would replace ZP2929 under the collaboration between the two companies.
The decision to replace ZP2929 with a newer compound might have seemed like a setback, but it actually reflected the strength of the collaboration. The research teams at both companies had identified molecules with superior properties—particularly compounds suitable for once-weekly dosing rather than the daily dosing that ZP2929 would have required. This compound would eventually become survodutide.
US Expansion
In 2018, they opened a subsidiary in the US.
Establishing a US presence was a strategic necessity. While Zealand had always intended to partner its drugs for commercialization, having a physical footprint in the world's largest pharmaceutical market enabled closer collaboration with US partners, access to US clinical trial investigators, and engagement with American regulatory authorities.
V. Leadership Transitions & Strategic Pivots (2019-2022)
CEO Changes
Companies in transition often experience leadership changes, and Zealand was no exception. The late 2010s and early 2020s saw significant executive turnover as the company evolved its strategy.
In February 2019, Jensen left her position, and in April 2019, Emmanuel Dulac was chosen and inaugurated as CEO. Dulac has worked at both European and American companies within the pharmaceutical industry.
Dulac brought international commercial experience at a time when Zealand was contemplating whether to build its own commercial capabilities. The company was exploring whether to commercialize its rare disease products directly rather than partnering them, which would require different leadership skills than the purely R&D-focused strategy of the past.
On March 30, 2022, Dr. Adam Steensberg assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer.
Steensberg's appointment marked another strategic evolution. With a medical background and experience in drug development, Steensberg was well-positioned to lead Zealand through the critical clinical development phases of its obesity pipeline. His appointment coincided with a refocused strategy that prioritized R&D excellence and partnership development.
Capital Injection & Acquisitions
In 2019, Zealand attracted a major long-term investor that would provide patient capital and strategic support.
In September 2019, the Dutch family foundation Van Herk Investments injected 560 million Danish Kroner (approx. 64 million pound sterling) into Zealand Pharma, meaning the foundation owns a fifth of the company's shares.
Van Herk Investments, with its long-term orientation and significant stake, provided Zealand with a stable anchor shareholder that could support the company through the inevitable volatility of clinical development. Family foundations often have investment horizons measured in decades rather than quarters—exactly the kind of patient capital that biotech companies need.
In October 2019, Zealand Pharma bought up the Canadian biotechnology company Encycle Therapeutics.
The Encycle acquisition expanded Zealand's pipeline with novel peptide programs and demonstrated management's willingness to use the company's public currency for strategic transactions.
EIB Financing
As Zealand's pipeline matured and the obesity opportunity became clearer, the company sought additional financing to support development.
Danish biotechnology company Zealand Pharma A/S signed a loan facility of €90 million with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by the Member States.
"This loan facility will further strengthen the financial position of Zealand Pharma, enabling us to invest in our differentiated obesity assets while better positioning us to secure commercial partnerships for our rare disease assets." The loan facility may be utilized in up to three tranches of EUR 50 million (Tranche A), EUR 20 million (Tranche B) and EUR 20 million (Tranche C), respectively, with disbursement of each tranche subject to pre-specified milestones being met.
The EIB financing was notable for several reasons. It provided non-dilutive capital at competitive rates—far cheaper than issuing equity. It represented validation from a sophisticated institutional lender. And it demonstrated Zealand's ability to access diverse capital sources as it scaled its operations.
VI. The GLP-1 Revolution & Zealand's Positioning (2020-2024)
The Obesity Drug Mega-Trend
Between 2020 and 2024, something remarkable happened in the pharmaceutical industry. Obesity, long considered an intractable condition that couldn't be effectively treated with drugs, suddenly became one of healthcare's most lucrative market opportunities.
The global GLP-1 receptor agonist market size was estimated at USD 53.46 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 156.71 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.46% from 2025 to 2030.
Novo Nordisk's Wegovy (semaglutide) and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro/Zepbound (tirzepatide) transformed the landscape. These drugs delivered weight loss of 15-25%—results that approached surgical intervention but with far lower risk. Suddenly, hundreds of millions of people with obesity had a realistic treatment option.
After eclipsing Novo earlier in 2025 when it secured 53% of the market, Eli Lilly saw its share rise to 57% during the second quarter. The company also said its tirzepatide meds now account for two-thirds of all patients taking obesity drugs.
The market dynamics favored established players with manufacturing capacity and commercial infrastructure. But they also created opportunities for innovative companies with differentiated approaches—particularly those targeting patients who couldn't tolerate GLP-1 drugs or wanted alternatives.
Zealand's Differentiated Approach
Zealand's therapeutic focus areas include: obesity, rare diseases, and chronic inflammation. In obesity, their peptide capabilities place them in a unique position to address a vast global health challenge and positively impact hundreds of millions of lives.
Zealand's strategy in obesity wasn't to compete head-to-head with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly using similar GLP-1-based mechanisms. Instead, the company pursued multiple differentiated approaches:
Amylin analogs (petrelintide): A fundamentally different mechanism than GLP-1, working through different hormonal pathways to induce satiety.
Glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonists (survodutide): A combination approach that might deliver superior efficacy by activating multiple metabolic pathways.
GLP-1/GLP-2 dual agonists (dapiglutide): A novel approach addressing weight loss and gut health simultaneously.
This portfolio strategy hedged against the risk that any single mechanism might fail while also positioning Zealand as a potential source of combination therapies for patients who needed more than GLP-1 alone.
The Survodutide Story
The partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, established in 2011, continued to evolve. By 2024, survodutide had become one of the most advanced glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonists in development.
Boehringer Ingelheim is evaluating survodutide in global Phase 3 trials for people living with overweight and obesity, among key sub-populations. SYNCHRONIZE-1 and SYNCHRONIZE-2 include people living with comorbidities, without and with type 2 diabetes, respectively.
Survodutide has been granted Fast Track Designation and Breakthrough Therapy Designation by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as access to the Priority Medicine (PRIME) Scheme by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for MASH with fibrosis.
Based on the actual maintenance dose regardless of assignment at randomization, survodutide showed up to 18.7% mean weight loss after 46 weeks. This level of efficacy put survodutide in the same class as the leading obesity drugs on the market.
Zealand Pharma is eligible to receive up to EUR 315 million in outstanding milestone payments, plus tiered royalties ranging from high single-digit to low double-digit percentages on potential global sales by Boehringer Ingelheim.
VII. Petrelintide & The Roche Mega-Deal: Inflection Point (2024-2025)
Developing the Next-Generation Asset
While survodutide was partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim, Zealand retained full ownership of petrelintide—and this decision would prove transformational.
Zealand said petrelintide can be "the backbone of therapy for weight management" because it may provide GLP-1-like efficacy without the side effects. The Danish biotech's CEO said obesity candidate petrelintide can be "the backbone of therapy for weight management" after reporting phase 1b data. Petrelintide is a long-acting amylin analog.
Petrelintide is a long-acting amylin analog suitable for once-weekly subcutaneous administration. Amylin is produced in pancreatic beta cells and co-secreted with insulin in response to ingested nutrients. Amylin receptor activation has been shown to reduce body weight by restoring sensitivity to the satiety hormone leptin, inducing a sense of feeling full faster.
The amylin mechanism was fundamentally different from GLP-1. Zealand Pharma has long pointed to amylin analogs as the "next generation" of weight loss treatment. They work by mimicking a hormone that is co-secreted with insulin in the pancreas to increase satiety. This differs from GLP-1 agonists, which mimic incretin hormones produced in the gut to suppress appetite. "In contrast to GLP-1s that make people lose appetite, petrelintide can help people feel fuller faster."
This distinction mattered clinically. GLP-1 drugs often cause nausea, vomiting, and other gastrointestinal side effects that lead many patients to discontinue treatment. If petrelintide could deliver similar weight loss with better tolerability, it could capture significant market share among patients who couldn't tolerate GLP-1s or wanted alternatives.
Zealand Pharma announced positive topline results from the Phase 1b 16-week multiple ascending dose clinical trial with long-acting amylin analog petrelintide. Body weight reductions of up to a mean of 8.6% with high dose petrelintide after 16 weekly doses (1.7% with placebo). "The data reported from this 16-week trial are both exciting and compelling, demonstrating significant and clinically meaningful reductions in body weight with a very favorable tolerability profile."
The Transformational Roche Partnership
In March 2025, Zealand announced a deal that would fundamentally transform the company.
Zealand Pharma will receive upfront cash payments of USD 1.65 billion, including USD 1.4 billion due at closing and USD 250 million in anniversary payments over two years, as well as potential milestone payments, for a total consideration of up to USD 5.3 billion.
Under the terms of this agreement, the two companies will collaborate to co-develop and co-commercialize petrelintide, Zealand Pharma's amylin analog as a standalone therapy as well as a fixed-dose combination with Roche's lead incretin asset CT-388.
William Blair analysts described the deal as involving "the highest total considerations in the obesity field and the largest upfront cash payment for a single-asset collaboration framework."
The deal structure was notable for several reasons. First, Zealand retained significant economics—50/50 profit sharing in the US and Europe rather than a traditional royalty arrangement. Second, the combination with CT-388 (Roche's GLP-1/GIP dual agonist) created the potential for a best-in-class combination therapy. Third, Roche's global manufacturing and commercial capabilities would accelerate development and maximize commercial potential.
Shares of Zealand Pharma jumped 38%, while Roche shares closed 3.6% higher on the deal announcement.
Why This Deal Matters
CEO Adam Steensberg stated: "We strongly believe that petrelintide holds potential as a foundational therapy for weight management, addressing unmet medical needs among the majority of people living with overweight and obesity, both as stand-alone therapy and in combination with other agents. This collaboration with Roche is a step change to realize this vision, while solidifying Zealand Pharma as a key player in the future management of obesity."
Steensberg said Zealand had received a "high degree of interest" since launching partnership discussions. However, he noted that Roche was "by far the most desirable," citing the Swiss firm's prior developments in the obesity drug market, including its acquisition of GLP-1 maker Carmot Therapeutics.
Roche's strategic rationale was equally compelling. Having entered the obesity space through its acquisition of Carmot, Roche needed differentiated assets to compete with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Petrelintide's amylin mechanism provided exactly that differentiation—a potential alternative or complement to GLP-1 drugs that could address the significant percentage of patients who discontinue GLP-1 therapy due to tolerability issues.
VIII. The Current Pipeline & Clinical Progress (2025)
Obesity Portfolio
Petrelintide (with Roche):
The ZUPREME-1 Phase 2 trial completed enrollment in March 2025, with topline data expected in H1 2026 and Phase 3 initiation anticipated in H2 2026.
Zealand Pharma and Roche expect to initiate Phase 2 with petrelintide/CT-388 in the first half of 2026.
The rapid enrollment—completing a global Phase 2b trial in just three months—demonstrated strong clinical community interest in amylin-based approaches. This speed bodes well for subsequent trials and suggests that patient recruitment will not be a bottleneck.
Survodutide (with Boehringer Ingelheim):
The company is approaching Phase 3 data in H1 2026 with survodutide, following last participant last visit in the 76-week SYNCHRONIZE-1 trial in people with overweight and obesity without type 2 diabetes.
Large, global Phase 3 program in obesity includes SYNCHRONIZE-1 (overweight/obesity without T2D), SYNCHRONIZE-2 (overweight/obesity with T2D), SYNCHRONIZE-JP (Japanese patients), SYNCHRONIZE-CN (Chinese patients), SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT (long-term CV safety), and SYNCHRONIZE-MASLD (obesity with confirmed or presumed MASH).
Dapiglutide:
Development of dapiglutide has been paused as part of active portfolio management, focusing investments on programs with the greatest potential for clinical differentiation.
The decision to pause dapiglutide development reflects disciplined capital allocation. With petrelintide and survodutide advancing rapidly, management chose to concentrate resources on programs with clearer paths to differentiation and regulatory approval.
Rare Disease Portfolio
Within rare diseases, Zealand has a long-standing commitment to deliver new treatments to patients living with congenital hyperinsulinism and short bowel syndrome.
Dasiglucagon for Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CHI): A glucagon analog designed for continuous subcutaneous infusion via a wearable pump system. The program is awaiting FDA approval following submission of the New Drug Application.
Glepaglutide for Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS): A long-acting GLP-2 analog in Phase 3 development, with Zealand expecting to submit a Marketing Authorization Application to the EMA and initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial (EASE-5) to provide additional confirmatory evidence for US regulatory submission.
IX. Financial Transformation (2024-2025)
The Roche Windfall
Zealand Pharma reported exceptional financial results for H1 2025, with revenue of DKK 9,096.4 million, primarily driven by its collaboration with Roche for petrelintide. The company posted a net profit of DKK 7,434.8 million for the period.
This represented a staggering transformation from a company that had historically generated modest milestone and royalty revenues. In a corporate update, Zealand Pharma announced a robust financial performance with revenues surging to DKK 9,096 million in H1 2025, compared to DKK 49 million in the same period last year. The operating result reached DKK 8,128 million, a remarkable turnaround from a loss of DKK 524 million a year earlier.
As of 30-Jun-2025, Zealand Pharma has a trailing 12-month revenue of $1.33B.
Investment Strategy
Research and development expenses totaled DKK 754.5 million, representing 78% of the company's total spending, reflecting Zealand's continued investment in its pipeline. Sales and marketing expenses were DKK 78.6 million (8% of spending), while general and administrative expenses amounted to DKK 134.7 million (14% of spending).
The company confirmed its 2025 financial guidance, projecting net operating expenses between DKK 2,000-2,500 million, compared to DKK 1,327 million in 2024. This increase reflects Zealand's plans to invest significantly in its early-stage research pipeline.
Zealand Pharma's financial position has strengthened considerably, with cash reserves increasing to DKK 16,169 million as of September 2025, up from DKK 9,022 million in December 2024. This increase was primarily driven by DKK 7,575 million in cash flow from operating activities.
Current Position
Zealand Pharma has 393 total employees.
This lean organization—fewer than 400 employees generating over $1 billion in revenue—reflects the efficiency of Zealand's partnership-centric model. Rather than building massive commercial and manufacturing organizations, the company focuses on R&D excellence while partners handle downstream activities.
X. Playbook: Business & Strategy Lessons
The Platform Model
Zealand Pharma does not promote and sell products in the market themselves, however, they form partnerships with several international pharmaceutical companies, who are responsible for placing the products on the market.
Their strategy is to pursue global co-development and commercialization partnerships that complement and extend their capabilities across the value chain.
This strategic choice—to be a discovery and development company rather than an integrated pharmaceutical company—has proven remarkably successful. Zealand has avoided the capital intensity and execution risk of building commercial operations while capturing meaningful economics through milestone payments, royalties, and profit-sharing arrangements.
The partnership model also allows Zealand to focus on what it does best: peptide engineering and clinical development through proof-of-concept. Partners like Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim bring capabilities that would take Zealand decades to build—global manufacturing networks, regulatory expertise across dozens of countries, and commercial organizations capable of reaching millions of patients.
Competitive Analysis: Porter's Five Forces
Threat of New Entrants (Moderate): The obesity drug market attracts intense interest, with 60+ companies developing GLP-1 or related drugs. However, peptide engineering expertise and clinical development capabilities create meaningful barriers. Zealand's 25+ years of peptide experience would be difficult to replicate quickly.
Bargaining Power of Buyers (Low): For transformative obesity drugs, payers have limited negotiating power. Drugs that reduce obesity-related comorbidities (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea) generate healthcare savings that justify premium pricing.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Low): Zealand's core capabilities are internal. Raw materials for peptide synthesis are commodity chemicals available from multiple sources.
Threat of Substitutes (Moderate): Bariatric surgery remains the most effective obesity treatment, but it's invasive and capacity-constrained. Non-pharmacological approaches (diet, exercise) have low long-term success rates. The main substitute threat comes from next-generation drugs that might offer superior efficacy or tolerability.
Competitive Rivalry (High): Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dominate the obesity market with established products, massive manufacturing capacity, and commercial infrastructure. Multiple challengers (Viking Therapeutics, Amgen, and others) are developing differentiated approaches. Zealand must demonstrate that petrelintide and survodutide offer meaningful differentiation to capture market share.
Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers Analysis
Counter-Positioning: Zealand's amylin-based approach represents potential counter-positioning against GLP-1 incumbents. If petrelintide offers comparable efficacy with better tolerability, it addresses a clear market gap that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly may be reluctant to cannibalize their existing products to address.
Cornered Resource: Zealand's 25+ years of peptide engineering expertise constitutes a scarce, accumulated capability. The company's track record—multiple drugs invented and brought to market—provides credibility that newer entrants lack.
Scale Economies: Limited at Zealand's stage. Scale benefits accrue primarily to commercial-stage companies with manufacturing and sales infrastructure.
Network Economies: Not applicable to this business model.
Switching Costs: For physicians and patients using Zealand-invented drugs, switching costs are minimal. However, Zealand's partnerships create meaningful switching costs for collaborators who have invested significantly in co-development.
Process Power: Zealand's ability to consistently engineer peptides with favorable therapeutic properties—demonstrated across lixisenatide, survodutide, petrelintide, dasiglucagon, and glepaglutide—suggests embedded process advantages that drive superior discovery and development outcomes.
Branding: Limited at the company level, but increasing as Zealand's obesity programs gain visibility. The Roche partnership significantly elevates Zealand's profile among investors and potential partners.
XI. Looking Forward: Catalysts & Key Metrics
Upcoming Catalysts
2026: - H1 2026: Topline data from ZUPREME-1 (petrelintide Phase 2b) - H1 2026: Phase 3 data from SYNCHRONIZE-1 (survodutide) - H2 2026: Anticipated Phase 3 initiation for petrelintide - H1 2026: Phase 2 initiation for petrelintide/CT-388 combination
Key Performance Indicators to Track
For long-term investors evaluating Zealand Pharma, three KPIs merit ongoing attention:
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Phase 2/Phase 3 Clinical Trial Success Rates: Zealand's value proposition rests on the ability to advance differentiated drug candidates through clinical development. The company's historical track record (multiple drugs reaching market) suggests strong capabilities, but each new program carries meaningful risk. Success rates in late-stage trials, particularly for petrelintide and survodutide, will determine whether Zealand's current valuation is justified.
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Partnership Economics (Milestones + Royalty/Profit Share Potential): Given Zealand's partnership-centric model, the total economic value generated from collaborations is the ultimate measure of success. This includes upfront payments, development milestones, regulatory milestones, and commercial milestones, plus ongoing royalties or profit shares. Tracking both achieved milestones and remaining milestone potential provides insight into the company's long-term value creation trajectory.
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Pipeline Breadth and Diversity: Zealand's ability to generate new drug candidates matters beyond any single program. A robust pipeline reduces single-program risk and creates optionality for future partnerships. Investors should monitor early-stage program advancement and the company's investment in research (currently 78% of operating expenses).
XII. Bull and Bear Cases
The Bull Case
Zealand Pharma represents an asymmetric opportunity in one of healthcare's largest market expansions. The bull thesis rests on several pillars:
Petrelintide delivers: If Phase 2b data confirms GLP-1-like efficacy with superior tolerability, petrelintide could become the preferred option for patients who don't tolerate GLP-1s (a significant minority of the addressable market). The Roche partnership provides manufacturing, regulatory, and commercial capabilities to execute rapidly.
Survodutide succeeds: Independent of petrelintide, survodutide Phase 3 success would generate significant milestone payments and royalties from Boehringer Ingelheim. The dual mechanism (glucagon + GLP-1) may offer differentiation on both efficacy and metabolic health markers.
Market expands beyond current projections: Current penetration of obesity drugs remains low (<5% of eligible patients). As pricing pressure eases and payer coverage expands, the addressable market could be significantly larger than current forecasts suggest.
Platform generates additional value: Zealand's peptide capabilities have produced multiple successful drugs. The company's early-stage pipeline (ZP6590, ZP9830, ZP10068) could yield additional partnership opportunities.
The Bear Case
Significant risks temper enthusiasm:
Clinical disappointment: Drug development is inherently risky. Petrelintide Phase 2b data could disappoint on efficacy or reveal unexpected safety signals. Survodutide tolerability issues observed in Phase 2 (higher discontinuation rates) could persist in Phase 3.
Competitive intensity: The obesity market attracts massive investment from well-resourced competitors. Novo Nordisk's CagriSema (semaglutide + cagrilintide), Eli Lilly's retatrutide (triple agonist), and numerous other candidates could establish efficacy benchmarks that Zealand's drugs struggle to match.
Execution complexity: Zealand has never commercialized products independently. Even with strong partners like Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, co-development arrangements introduce coordination complexity and potential misalignment.
Regulatory uncertainty: Obesity drugs face heightened regulatory scrutiny regarding cardiovascular safety, psychiatric effects, and long-term outcomes. Unexpected regulatory requirements could delay approvals or limit commercial potential.
Valuation dependency on future milestones: Zealand's current market cap reflects expectations of significant future milestone and royalty payments. Any clinical or commercial disappointment could trigger meaningful valuation compression.
XIII. Conclusion
Zealand Pharma's journey from a 1997 Copenhagen spin-out to a $5 billion obesity drug powerhouse offers lessons for both investors and industry observers.
The company demonstrates that sustained focus on a core capability—peptide engineering—can generate compounding returns over decades. While competitors chased various therapeutic modalities, Zealand methodically built expertise that eventually positioned it at the center of the obesity drug revolution.
The partnership model, often criticized as leaving too much value on the table, has proven remarkably effective for Zealand. By licensing drugs to pharmaceutical giants rather than building integrated capabilities, the company has achieved multiple drug approvals while maintaining a lean organization (fewer than 400 employees) and avoiding the capital intensity of commercial operations.
Timing, of course, mattered enormously. Zealand's decision to develop amylin analogs and glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonists looked prescient when GLP-1 drugs became the pharmaceutical industry's hottest sector. But this "luck" was prepared: Zealand had been developing peptide drugs for metabolic diseases since its founding, and its capabilities were ready when the market opportunity materialized.
Looking ahead, Zealand faces both enormous opportunity and significant risk. The obesity market offers generational growth potential, and Zealand's differentiated pipeline positions the company to capture meaningful share. But clinical development risk remains substantial, competition is intense, and execution in a partner-dependent model introduces coordination challenges.
For long-term investors, Zealand represents a leveraged bet on the continued expansion of the obesity drug market combined with the company's ability to deliver differentiated therapies. The Roche partnership has de-risked the petrelintide program significantly while providing capital to pursue next-generation assets. Whether that bet pays off depends on clinical data that will emerge over the coming years—data that will either validate Zealand's "next-generation" positioning or reveal the gap between promise and reality in drug development.
As CEO Adam Steensberg noted following the Roche deal announcement: "Zealand Pharma has never been in a stronger position than we are today—financially, organizationally and in terms of our clinical development pipeline." The coming years will test whether that strength translates into the sustained value creation that the company's two-decade journey has been building toward.
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