Zealand Pharma (ZEAL) 43rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference summary

Strategic vision and market positioning

• Aims to become a key player in the evolving obesity market, leveraging 25 years of peptide R&D experience.

• Company transformation over the past three years has positioned it for accelerated growth, with a strong financial outlook and robust pipeline.

• Focused on differentiated approaches in obesity, rare diseases, and chronic inflammation, emphasizing innovation beyond GLP-1-based therapies.

• Highlights the need for novel therapeutic categories to address the obesity pandemic, moving away from a sole focus on maximum weight loss.

• Sees significant opportunity in offering alternatives to current obesity treatments, aiming for healthy, sustainable weight loss.

Pipeline highlights and clinical progress

• Petrelintide, an amylin analog, is the lead asset, offering a non-incretin mechanism for weight loss; Phase 2b study initiated and expected to complete this year.

• Dapiglutide, a GLP-1/GLP-2 molecule, will report 28-week data and move into Phase 2b in the first half of the year.

• Survodutide, partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim, is progressing through Phase 3 trials in obesity and NASH, with strong data in both areas.

• Two rare disease programs in late-stage development remain valuable, targeting congenital hyperinsulinism and short bowel syndrome.

• Early R&D pipeline focuses on chronic inflammatory diseases and novel obesity targets.

Obesity market insights and unmet needs

• Obesity is linked to over 220 diseases and is considered the largest healthcare challenge of our time.

• Emphasizes the importance of duration of obesity over simple BMI thresholds, predicting rising prevalence and healthcare burden.

• Current GLP-1-based therapies are effective but have high dropout rates due to GI side effects, with average treatment duration of five months.

• Patients typically seek 15%-20% weight loss, not the maximum possible, and value tolerability and sustainability.

• Calls for more patient-centric, differentiated treatment options to improve adherence and long-term outcomes.