Zealand Pharma is raising $1 billion to focus on its “crown jewel” — an amylin analog for weight loss — both to advance it into a Phase 2b trial and hunt for a development and commercial partner.
CEO Adam Steensberg told Endpoints News in an interview that the drug candidate, dubbed petrelintide, could “form a new backbone in obesity management” because it has the potential for GLP-1-like weight loss but with an improved tolerability profile.
Proceeds will help advance petrelintide into a large Phase 2b obesity test later this year. The company announced last week the drug hit its efficacy goal earlier than expected in a Phase 1b trial.
The Danish biotech initially planned for a $900 million raise Tuesday but such is the interest in the weight loss space that it boosted the offering to $1 billion overnight. The company is issuing 8,350,000 new shares at DKK 843 ($120.75) apiece.
Zealand is also keen to find a partner to co-develop and co-commercialize petrelintide. “We believe amylin should be the leading molecule in the portfolio of a large pharma company,” Steensberg said, adding that Zealand wants to work with a company that shares this vision and also offers “global reach” and future “investments in manufacturing capacity.”
The biotech is no stranger to partnerships as it is working with Boehringer Ingelheim on survodutide, a glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist for obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
Interest in amylin has been ramping up as companies seek to differentiate themselves from blockbuster GLP-1-based drugs.
In the Phase 1b trial, petrelintide helped patients lose a “significant” amount of weight versus placebo at 16 weeks, but Zealand has yet to detail efficacy results. There were no serious or severe side effects associated with the drug, according to the company.
But strong data are just an entry ticket to the commercial race in obesity, where companies are scrambling to build up production capabilities to meet demand. Steensberg said that Zealand doesn’t have to think about investing in scaling up manufacturing for another two to four years.
Nonetheless, it is “fully engaged with parties” it may need to work with in the future on API production, he added. “I think all the [weight loss drug] manufacturing issues we are seeing right now — that problem is going away. We will see a lot of new capacity in the coming five years.”
Petrelintide is administered subcutaneously.
Dosing considerations for GLP-1/GLP-2 drug
Zealand will also use some of the funds to explore new indications for its GLP-1 portfolio: It is “incredibly important” to differentiate new assets from what’s on the market, Steensberg said. It has a candidate in its pipeline, dapiglutide, which is a GLP-1/GLP-2 receptor dual agonist.
Dapiglutide could have potential in conditions such as MASH, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and Alzheimer’s disease, he added.
In May, dapiglutide led to seemingly “underwhelming” weight loss in a Phase 2a trial but these were from low doses, according to Jefferies analysts. The company reported data from 4 mg and 6 mg doses.
Steensberg said an ongoing Phase 1b study has pushed dapiglutide doses “more than twice as high [as in the Phase 2a] and we plan to get it significantly higher.” The Phase 1b dose-titration trial is evaluating “doses of up to 13 mg,” according to a May release. Looking further ahead, Zealand expects to see weight loss between 20% and 25% in long-term Phase 3 studies of dapiglutide, Steensberg said.