Zealand’s GLP-2 analogue European patent rights

Copenhagen, 2014-06-12 09:21 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copenhagen, 12 June 2014 – Zealand Pharma A/S (“Zealand”) (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL) informs that it has been notified that a Written Decision of the European Patent Office (EPO) Opposition Division has been published in the European Patent Register upholding Zealand’s European patent (EP1877435) covering GLP-2 analogues following a challenge by a US-based, NASDAQ listed biotech company. The EPO Opposition Division in Munich categorically rejected all grounds of the opposition and Zealand’s patent claims were found to be valid in their originally granted form.

The GLP-2 analogue patent covers the Zealand invented peptide therapeutic elsiglutide (in Phase II development for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea under a license agreement with Helsinn Healthcare SA, which is responsible for the clinical development of the product) and also covers ZP1848 (a Zealand proprietary peptide therapeutic ready for Phase II development) as well as a range of back-up GLP-2 peptide analogues.

The Written Decision of the EPO Opposition Division follows oral proceedings which were held on 13th March 2014 at the EPO in Munich and is now available in the European Patent Register.  More information can be found on:   https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP06727006

David Solomon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Zealand, said: “ We are obviously pleased that our patent position is robust enough to achieve such status. Careful management of our portfolio of IP rights has high priority as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain and augment the value of our pipeline and of our leading position and expertise in the discovery, design and development of novel peptide medicines .”

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For further information, please contact:

David H. Solomon, President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: +45 2220 6300

Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President and Head of IR & Corporate Communications Tel: +45 5060 3689, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com

About Zealand

Zealand Pharma A/S (Zealand) (NASDAQ OMX 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 a mature portfolio of therapeutic products, which are all based on internal inventions. The company’s focus lies in the field of cardio-metabolic diseases, diabetes and obesity in particular, and its lead product is lixisenatide, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 agonist for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, marketed as Lyxumia ^® under a license agreement with Sanofi. Lyxumia ^® is approved in several countries globally, including Europe and Japan. In the US, submission of an NDA is expected in 2015, after completion of a cardiovascular outcome study, ELIXA. A once-daily single injection combination of Lyxumia ^® and Lantus ^® (LixiLan) is in Phase III development with planned first regulatory filing in end 2015.   

Zealand has a partnering strategy for the development and commercialization of its products and in addition to the license agreement with Sanofi in Type 2 diabetes, the company has partnerships with Boehringer Ingelheim in diabetes/obesity, Lilly in diabetes and obesity, Helsinn Healthcare in chemotherapy induced diarrhea and AbbVie in acute kidney injury.  

For further information: www.zealandpharma.com  

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