- Combination treatment with novel GIP agonist and a GLP-1 agonist provides body weight loss superior to GLP-1 agonist treatment alone with maintained glycemic control in a preclinical model of Type 2 diabetes
- Zealand’s GIP peptide therapeutic has a long-acting profile, providing potential for its use as a once-weekly treatment
Copenhagen, 15 September 2015 – Zealand informs that new preclinical data on its novel GIP receptor agonist, ZP-I-98, will be presented at the 51st European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting, taking place on 14th – 18th September, 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden. ZP-I-98 is invented and wholly-owned by Zealand.
ZP-I-98 – A novel long-acting GIP receptor agonist
One investigational approach to enhance the efficacy of GLP-1 receptor agonists, used for the management of Type 2 diabetes, includes combination therapy with a glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) receptor agonist. Recent preclinical studies conducted by Zealand with its novel GIP receptor agonist, ZP-1-98, have shown that a GIP/GLP-1 combination therapy could enhance the treatment of Type 2 diabetes by inducing both robust glycemic control as well as a greater loss of body weight than seen by a single treatment. ZP-1-98 has a long-acting profile, which indicates that it could be suitable for convenient once-weekly dosing.
Zealand will present the results from these studies in a poster at EASD under the following headline:
“A novel GIP receptor agonist enhances the body weight lowering effect of Liraglutide in diet-induced obese mice and has the potential for once-weekly administration in humans”
When: Wednesday 16th September, 2015 at 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM CET
Presenter: Pia Noerregaard, Senior Scientist, Zealand
Poster Session: PS 075 Investigational injectable glucose-lowering therapy
Presentation Number: 838
Commenting ahead of the presentation, Keld Fosgerau, acting Senior Vice President and Head of Research at Zealand, said: “Our recent pre-clinical results support the attractive therapeutic rationale of combining the incretin hormones GIP and GLP-1 for better management of Type 2 diabetes. In addition to robust glycemic control, we believe that the strong weight loss effects of this dual strategy combined with an expected once-weekly treatment profile represent potentially significant benefits for patients.”
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For further information, please contact
Britt Meelby Jensen, President and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +45 51 67 61 28, email: bmj@zealandpharma.com
Hanne Leth Hillman, Senior Vice President for Investor Relations & Communications
Tel: +45 50 60 36 89, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com
About Zealand Pharma
Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq Copenhagen: ZEAL) (“Zealand”) is a medicinal biotech company with leading expertise in the identification, design and development of novel peptide medicines. Zealand has a proprietary pipeline of novel drug candidates and a portfolio of products and projects under license collaborations with Sanofi, Helsinn Healthcare and Boehringer Ingelheim – primarily in the fields of cardio-metabolic diseases and acute care indications.
The proprietary pipeline includes danegaptide for ischemic reperfusion Injuries in Phase II development and the stable glucagon analogue, ZP4207 in two clinical development programs; as a single-dose rescue pen for severe hypoglycemia and as multiple-dose use for the correction of mild to moderate hypoglycemia in preparation and evaluation, respectively for next clinical phase after Phase I trials, as well as several preclinical peptide therapeutics.
Zealand has invented lixisenatide, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 agonist, which is marketed globally (ex-US) by Sanofi for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Sanofi submitted lixisenatide for regulatory approval in the US in late July 2015, and has a combination of lixisenatide with insulin glargine (Lantus®) which is on track for regulatory submission in the US in Q4 2015 and in Europe in Q1 2016.
The company is based in Copenhagen (Glostrup), Denmark. For further information about Zealand’s business and activities, please visit: www.zealandpharma.com or follow us on Twitter @ZealandPharma
