Zealand Pharma shares soar on obesity results

(CercleFinance.com) - Zealand Pharma's share price soared on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on Friday, following the biotech company's announcement of positive results from a clinical trial in obesity.


At 3.30pm, the share price jumped by over 16%, by far the biggest gainer on the OMXC25 index, with volumes reaching over one million shares, the highest in four months.

In a press release, Zealand reported that a Phase 1b trial had shown that its petrelintide, a human amylin analog, enabled participants to lose an average of up to 8.6% of their body weight in 16 weeks of treatment.

By comparison, the rate was just 1.7% in the placebo group.

According to Jefferies analysts, these figures suggest that the drug, administered by subcutaneous injection, could enable weight loss of more than 15% over longer periods.

Importantly, tolerability was impressive, even though the study recorded one discontinuation, which means that amylin could be an easier-to-tolerate alternative to GLP-1 to," adds Jefferies.

Zealand Pharma now plans to start a phase 2b clinical trial in the second half of the year.

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