Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma enter into a licence and collaboration agreement to advance novel compounds to treat Type-2 diabetes and obesity

Copenhagen, Denmark and Ingelheim, Germany, 16 June 2011 – Today, Zealand Pharma (NASDAQ OMX: ZEAL), a Copenhagen based biopharmaceutical company, and Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, jointly announced an exclusive global licence and collaboration agreement for dual-acting glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonists for the treatment of patients with Type-2 diabetes and patients with obesity.

As part of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim obtains global development and commercialisation rights to ZP2929, Zealand Pharma’s lead glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonist drug candidate. Zealand Pharma will be responsible for conducting the first Phase I study with ZP2929 and Boehringer Ingelheim will fund the research, development and commercialisation of products under the agreement.

Depending on the achievement of pre-defined development, regulatory and commercial milestones, Zealand Pharma is eligible to receive payments for ZP2929 and may also receive additional milestone payments if other products covered by the collaboration are advanced through development. Further, Zealand Pharma is entitled to tiered royalties that range from high single to low double digits on global sales of products under the agreement. Zealand Pharma retains co-promotion rights in Scandinavia.

During the first two years of collaboration, Zealand Pharma is eligible to receive signature, milestone, and other payments of up to €41 million including cost reimbursements and including research funding of up to €4 million. In their research collaboration, Zealand Pharma and Boehringer Ingelheim will focus on the characterization, identification and development of additional glucagon/GLP-1 dual agonists for the exploration of new indications, formulations and delivery systems.