Copenhagen, 2015-05-04 09:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 4 May 2015 - Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq Copenhagen: ZEAL) (“Zealand”) informs of its representation in key roles at TIDES 2015, an annual US-based global conference focusing on the discovery, clinical development and manufacturing of therapeutic peptides and oligonucleotides. The conference is taking place on 3-6 May 2015 in San Diego, California.
Dr. Lene Jessen, Head of Pharmacology at Zealand, will give a conference keynote speech. In her talk, Lene will outline the status of peptides as medicines, including a discussion on their strengths and weaknesses, and present the range of emerging new opportunities in the field of peptide drug design and development. Lene will also provide an update on Zealand’s portfolio of peptide-based medicines in development.
Lise Giehm, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Zealand, will lead a presentation of the company’s stable glucagon analogue program for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia in diabetes. Lise will demonstrate how, through a series of iterative changes to the native sequence of glucagon, Zealand has designed an optimized glucagon analogue (ZP-GA-1) which has demonstrated to be suitable for long-term storage at room temperature as a stable liquid formulation with a similar pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics profile to native glucagon. Zealand is currently evaluating ZP4207, a further improved lead from the program, in a clinical Phase I trial, from which results are expected mid-2015.
Dr. Jon Griffin, Senior Scientist at Zealand, will present a paper entitled “Chimeric and hybrid peptides as multifunctional therapeutics in a single drug”, with examples of Zealand designed chimeric and hybrid peptides which hold more than one pharmacological activity, including the GLP-1-gastrin dual agonist for the treatment of diabetes.
No new financial or other material new information relating to Zealand will be disclosed at the TIDES conference.
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For further information, please contact:
Hanne Leth Hillman, Senior Vice President for Communications & Investor Relations
Tel: +45 50 60 36 89, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com
About Zealand Pharma
Zealand Pharma A/S (“Zealand”) (Nasdaq Copenhagen: ZEAL) is a biotechnology company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Zealand has leading expertise in the discovery, design and development of novel peptide medicines and possesses in-house competences in clinical trial design and management with a therapeutic focus on metabolic diseases and acute care indications. The company is advancing a pipeline of novel wholly-owned medicines alongside a partnered product and development portfolio.
Zealand’s first invented medicine, lixisenatide, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 agonist for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, is marketed globally (ex-US) as Lyxumia® and in Phase III development as a single-injection combination with Lantus® (LixiLan), both under a global license agreement with Sanofi. US regulatory submission of Lyxumia® is planned for Q3 2015 and US/EU regulatory submissions for LixiLan in Q4 2015 and Q1 2016, respectively.
Zealand’s wholly-owned products include danegaptide (prevention of Ischemic Reperfusion Injury) in Phase II and the stable glucagon product, ZP4207 (treatment of severe hypoglycemia) in Phase I as well as several preclinical peptide therapeutics. Partnering represents an important component of strategy to leverage in-house expertise, share development risk in large clinical trials, provide funding and commercialize the company’s products. Zealand currently has global license agreements and partnerships with Sanofi, Helsinn Healthcare, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly.
For further information: www.zealandpharma.com Follow us on Twitter @ZealandPharma
