Zealand, at its Capital Markets Day in London, gave an overview of its robust strategy for its weight management legacy initiatives, which will be finalised in the near term, and the five products will be launched by 2030. Alongside, Zealand Pharma also announced its partnership with China-based OTR Therapeutics to modernise the future generation medicines for the different metabolic disorders and other health conditions. This valuable strategic partnership is worth $2.5 billion.
According to the agreement inked by both entities, OTR will be receiving an upfront payment of around $20 million from Zealand that will accelerate to $30 million under a few of the non-underlined conditions. The OTR Therapeutics will be capable of receiving a regulatory, sales, preclinical and development profit amount that might be around $2.5 billion, out of which the majority of the amount will be coming from the collaborations’ potential marketing performance.
Under this agreement, the Chinese biotech will also enjoy the tiered single-digit royalties on the overall net sales of the products, which are mentioned in the agreement, that reach the market. The Chief Scientific Officer, Utpal Singh, said, “For Zealand, this partnership represents the extension into an oral compact molecule therapeutics without stretching and neglecting the molecular targets where it's well experienced.”
Zealand, in return for this investment, will get the chance to accelerate OTR’s exclusive small-molecule platform to modernise the novel therapies for various metabolic disease targets. The partners have not yet disclosed their prioritised indications. But Utpal Singh stated that this collaboration is aligned with the company’s smart strategy to introduce new treatment alternatives mainly for individuals who are double-weight, suffering from obesity and any other metabolic diseases.
Zealand has already partnered with the two giants back, retaining its biotech position as a leader in the obesity area. Zealand’s decades of presence since 2011 in the metabolic diseases space have been a commendable journey. Other than collaboration, Zealand is expecting two late-stage top-notch readouts for survodutide in the first quarter of 2026; besides this, petrelintide will present Phase 2 data in 2026.
At Capital Markets Day in London, the company stated that it will put endless efforts to do justice to its legacy of weight management franchise. Furthermore, Zealand will focus on speed in its development and discovery process in such a way that the five product launches can also be lined up accordingly and form a comprehensive pipeline of above 10 investigational therapies.
Mansi Kadam is a market research writer with over 3 years of experience analyzing trends in the healthcare industry. At Towards Healthcare, she covers innovations in medical sector, sustainability initiatives, and the evolving regulatory landscape.
