President & Chief Executive Officer, Zealand Pharma
Zealand Pharma's new drug petrelintide will help people lose weight: CEO
Zealand Pharma CEO Adam Steensberg discusses the company’s new collaboration and licensing agreement with Roche as well as the commercial opportunities for its amylin analog molecule.
About Adam Steensberg
Adam Steensberg, president and CEO of Zealand Pharma, has discussed the company’s obesity drug pipeline, particularly its amylin analog petrelintide, which was partnered with Roche in a deal he described as including a 50/50 profit share and an additional product for Zealand’s pipeline. Steensberg stated that petrelintide could deliver weight loss in a “more pleasant way” than current GLP-1-based treatments, with less nausea and vomiting, and that the drug’s effect of making patients feel full faster could aid in weight maintenance. He described obesity as “the biggest unmet medical need of our times” and said that less than 2% of eligible candidates are currently on treatment, arguing that the market is not saturated and that more large pharmaceutical companies are needed in the space beyond Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Steensberg also commented on the importance of muscle preservation in weight management, stating that maintaining muscle mass could help sustain a higher resting energy expenditure and assist patients in the weight maintenance phase. He noted that Zealand’s focus for its dual-receptor drug dapiglutide will be developing it as a monotherapy for a specific indication initially, rather than as a fixed-dose combination. Regarding the company’s financial position, Steensberg said that Zealand feels “well-armed” to sponsor its share of development and pre-commercial activities under the Roche partnership.
Transcript (13 segments)
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Adam Steensberg0:00
We believe it's incredibly important. The obesity pandemic is one of the biggest healthcare challenges of our time, and we need novel tools that can help people lose weight and therefore have better health outcomes. With the currently available tools, a lot of people struggle due to nausea and vomiting, and also just that they lose their appetite. With petrelintide, we think we have a more pleasant molecule that can deliver the weight loss that patients are looking for, but in an easier way where people would just feel full faster rather than having lost their appetites. And also, what we have seen in clinical studies thus far is less nausea and vomiting compared to what we have normally seen with the GLP-1 class.
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Interviewer0:43
So explain to us how your research and your work compares with competitors of the likes of Novo Nordisk. They had a research trial earlier this week that actually was disappointing from a market perspective. Can you compete with them? Are you providing a stronger solution for a weight loss market?
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Adam Steensberg1:05
With what we have seen so far with petrelintide, we're very comfortable that we believe we have a best-in-class molecule with our amylin analog, and we want to develop this amylin analog as a future foundational therapy for weight management, providing the weight loss that the majority of obese individuals are looking for. And only for the most morbidly obese patients which have for instance type 2 diabetes, we would expect combination therapies to be a great choice. Combination therapies such as CagriSema or the combination that we will now pursue together with Roche on petrelintide and CT-388 are molecules that can deliver higher degrees of weight loss which is for the most morbidly obese patients. We will probably pursue those development efforts a little bit different than what Novo have done. We would look to maximize the effect of petrelintide, which we believe is the more tolerable component, and then just add a little bit of GLP-1 into the mix, and thereby we think we can address some of the limitations that have been seen thus far about getting enough patients to the top doses.
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Interviewer2:14
So just explain to us, when do you expect to see concrete results? Now walk us through the timeline over the next couple of months.
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Adam Steensberg2:22
Yes, we reported fantastic early data last year, and we are now soon to complete enrollment into the mid-stage clinical study, phase two. And then we will progress as fast as possible into phase three once we have the data sets from the phase two study. So we have already accelerated the program, and now with the partnership with Roche, we of course expect together with Roche to explore opportunities to accelerate the program even further. And thus, together with Roche, we have an ambition and a vision of leading in this space in the future. I think we have a unique opportunity to come in here and redefine the standard of care, and really for the management of obesity, disrupt the market dynamics.
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Interviewer3:09
But explain to me in more detail, what's in this deal for your company besides the regular payments that you might get from Roche?
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Adam Steensberg3:19
What we are most excited about is of course the profit share. We have a 50/50 profit share with Roche on future revenue for this program. And then of course the opportunity to collaborate with Roche in a true partnership to get these molecules to the patients. So for Zealand Pharma, it's the opportunity to develop our company into what we would consider a generational biotech alongside Roche. And then you can say of course the profit share is the most important element of the value, not disregarding the very high numbers that we are also looking at in up fronts and near-term milestones.
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Interviewer4:02
Absolutely. And what is your response to growing speculation in the markets that actually we will reach a point where Roche will actually buy Zealand Pharma? Is that something that you're planning on doing? Do you want to sell the company?
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Adam Steensberg4:17
It has all the time been our ambition to engage in a very strong co-development and co-commercialization partnership with profit sharing with a large pharma company who shares our vision about petrelintide and one who could convince us that they really want to lead in this space. And that is what we have with Roche also. And very importantly, we see a very strong cultural fit. So for us, it's about an opportunity to develop Zealand Pharma and really make sure that we contribute and participate in the long-term value creation. So M&A has never been on the table from our perspective.
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Interviewer4:52
And just finally, what is next for your business now that you've accomplished this deal with Roche? What is the next big thing that you would like to achieve for Zealand Pharma?
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Adam Steensberg5:03
You know, we are extremely ambitious with the company, but of course now it's just to continue to have the nose down and work hard to accelerate the program for petrelintide. And then we will continue and probably also increase our investments in the early pipeline so we make sure that the early pipeline will reflect the value that is needed for us in five years from now where we expect to be a very different company.
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Interviewer5:27
Actually, before I let you go, I do have one final question on the outlook for the US market in terms of obesity drugs. I believe that from this agreement with Roche, the expectation is that you will work side by side with Roche on the US market. But my question to you is whether you think the market for weight loss drugs is already actually too saturated.
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Adam Steensberg5:51
No, absolutely not. We probably have less than 2% of candidates on treatment today. We see obesity as the biggest healthcare challenge of our time. One of the problems with today's medicines are that people struggle to stay on them, and really there's been too much focus on weight loss and too little on weight maintenance. What we hope to achieve with petrelintide, because it has at least so far delivered less nausea and vomiting, it has delivered the weight loss that people are looking for. And then this thing that you feel full faster, we think will contribute to weight maintenance. So our focus will be healthy weight maintenance. And many more patients will have to be in treatment in order to prevent all the diseases that follow with obesity.