Copenhagen, 2012-12-13 13:22 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zealand Pharma (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL) announces that the company’s management will give a corporate presentation at the following upcoming investor conferences:

31st Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2013, San Francisco (7-10 January 2013)
Date and time of presentation: Thursday, 10 January, 14:00 PST (23:00 CET)
Presenter: Dr. David H. Solomon, President and CEO
The company will be available for 1-on-1 meetings, hosted by CEO David Solomon, CFO Mats Blom and Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President and Head of IR and Corporate Communication.

Oddo Midcap Forum, Lyon, France (10-11 January 2013)
Date of presentation: Friday, 11 January
Presenter: Mats Blom, Senior Vice President and CFO
The company will be available for 1-on-1 meetings, hosted by CFO Mats Blom and Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President and Head of IR and Corporate Communication.

No new financial or other material new information relating to Zealand Pharma will be disclosed at either event.

Following the presentations, a copy of the slide presentation will be available from the investor section of Zealand Pharma's website: www.zealandpharma.com.

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For further information, please contact:

Zealand Pharma A/S
Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President for IR & Corporate Communication,            
Tel: +45 50 60 36 89, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com

About Zealand Pharma
Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL) is a biotechnology company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Zealand Pharma specializes in the discovery, optimization and development of novel peptide drugs and has a broad and mature pipeline of drug candidates identified through its own drug discovery activities. The company’s focus lies in the field of diabetes/metabolic diseases, and its lead drug invention is lixisenatide (Lyxumia® ¹), a once-daily GLP-1 agonist, which is licensed to Sanofi for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. In November 2012, lixisenatide was given a CHMP positive opinion in Europe and a regulatory filing in the United States is expected in December 2012.

Zealand Pharma has a partnering strategy for the development and commercialization of its products and in addition to the collaboration with Sanofi in Type 2 diabetes, the company has partnerships with Boehringer Ingelheim in diabetes/obesity, Abbott in acute kidney injury and Helsinn Healthcare in chemotherapy induced diarrhea. Zealand Pharma focuses its activities in disease areas where existing treatments fail to adequately serve patient needs and where the market potential for improved treatments through the use of peptide drugs is high. For further information: www.zealandpharma.com

1. Lyxumia is the proprietary name submitted to the EMA for lixisenatide. The proprietary name for lixisenatide in the United States is under consideration. Lixisenatide is not currently approved or licensed anywhere in the world.