After announcing its intentions last month, Zealand Pharma has gone public in the US to fund its diabetes clinical trials.
Zealand Pharma, a Glostrup-based biotech focused on peptide development for diabetes, has been public on the Danish Aktieselskabet exchange since 2011, and since then its share price has risen by 50%. After filing for an American IPO on July 6th, today marks Zealand’s first day on NASDAQ as it aims for $75M (€63.5M), underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, that would bring its market cap to $582M (€493M).
While that doesn’t put Zealand Pharma on our list of the largest biotechs in Europe, the biotech is well on its way. It has successfully sent two type 2 diabetes products to market, a combination of a GLP-1 analog and insulin known as Suliqua in the EU (Soliqua in the US), and a meal-time GLP-1 receptor agonist called Adlyxin (or Lyxumia). Both of these have been licensed to Sanofi for commercialization.
The fresh funds from the NASDAQ offering will go to Zealand Pharma’s clinical trials for glepaglutide, a treatment for Short Bowel Syndrome, and dasiglucagon as a ‘rescue treatment’ for severe hypoglycemia, single-hormone pump for hyperinsulinism, and part an artificial pancreas system, like the one Roman Hovorka is developing.
Zealand Pharma isn’t the only biotech in Denmark staking its name on diabetes treatments. It’s competing directly with Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharma behind a range of insulin-based products, as well as some for obesity and hemophilia. And, as VP Liselotte Hyveled told me in February, its latest product Fiasp could be a blockbuster. Read more about how biotech is tackling diabetes in our review!
Images via Kateryna Kon, Alexilusmedical / shutterstock.com