Zealand Pharma tumbles on drug trial disappointment

(Sharecast News) - Shares of Zealand Pharma tumbled on Monday after the Danish pharmaceutical group said one in five patients dropped out of a trial of Boehringer Ingelheim's experimental survodutide obesity drug due to gastrointestinal side effects. Zealand said the Phase III trial in people living with obesity showed targeted 34% visceral and 63% liver fat reduction, while minimising lean mass loss in pre-specified analysis.

However, it also said that 19% of patients dropped out of the trial due to gastrointestinal events. These were mostly mild to moderate in severity and usually occurring during the dose escalation phase. The more frequent events included nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and constipation compared with placebo.

Only 2.9% of patients on placebo dropped out of the trial.

Survodutide is a glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist that activates both the glucagon and GLP-1 receptors, which play a role in controlling metabolic functions. It is being evaluated in a Phase III clinical development program, including the SYNCHRONIZE studies for people living with overweight or obesity and the LIVERAGE studies for people living with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and fibrosis.

Survodutide is licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim from Zealand Pharma, with Boehringer solely responsible for development and commercialisation globally. Survodutide is part of Boehringer Ingelheim's research and development portfolio in the cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease areas.

At 1148 BST, the shares were down 24% at DKK247.40.