Biotechnology Awards 2020

GHP / 2020 Biotechnology Awards 11 , Feb20230 Most Innovative Biotechnology Company – Europe & Most Ground-breaking Medical Device: Dasiglucagon HypoPal ® Rescue Pen As a firm that is wholly centred around discovering, designing, and developing innovative new peptide-based medicines, the pipeline of product which Zealand Pharma is currently developing is incredibly exciting. The majority of products within the pipeline are currently aimed at focusing on gastrointestinal, metabolic, and other specialty diseases where the firm believes that the present standard of care is inadequate. Where the resources are available, Zealand Pharma is advancing its peptide-based product candidates into the later stages of clinical development, including registration and commercialization whilst opportunistically considering partnership relationships that may arise along the way. However, it is more than just these specialty areas that Zealand Pharma is focused on. As well as the gastrointestinal and metabolic work, the firm is also looking to focus its efforts on drug candidates that may qualify for orphan and rare disease status. As with any firm that works in the latest innovations, the research and development team at Zealand Pharma is structured to enable dynamic collaboration across various functions and project teams at each stage of discovery and development. This dynamism and inter-project teamwork allows the firm to advance promising Founded in 1998, Zealand Pharma A/S is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, design, and development of innovative peptide-basedmedicines. Intending to be a leader in specialtymedicines focusing onmetabolic and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as other rare disease areas with significant unmet medical needs, Zealand Pharma is one of the most innovative biotechnology companies currently in operation. Following the firm’s success in this years’ Biotechnology Awards, we examine its innovations. opportunities quickly, and take advantage of its own extensive knowledge of peptide design and product development. Throughout the firm’s twenty two year history, it has built up a successful track record of inventing and developing novel peptide-based product candidates. This success is based on a deep understanding of peptide chemistry, and extensive experience in improving the therapeutic characteristics of naturally-occurring peptides by modifying and optimizing their structures. Each modification that the team at Zealand Pharma makes is carefully designed to improve upon any naturally- occurring peptides, thereby ensuring that their therapeutic benefit, duration of action, stability, and convenience of use compare favourably to other treatment options. One of the awards that Zealand Pharma has achieved this year is that of Most Ground-breaking Medical Device: Dasiglucagon HypoPal® Rescue Pen. This latest invention from the genius minds at the firm is aimed at helping those who suffer with severe hypoglycaemia, an acute, life- threatening condition resulting from a critical drop in blood glucose levels. Associated primarily with insulin therapy, severe hypoglycaemia is one of the most feared complications of diabetes treatment, particularly amongst all type-1 diabetes patients and the most severely-affected type-2 patients. Dasiglucagon is being developed to offer a stable and ready-to-use treatment in the form of a rescue pen. Working akin to a EpiPen, the HypoPal® Rescue Pen would be used to administer a single dose of dasiglucagon to rapidly increase the levels of blood glucose in patients with type-1 diabetes following insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Having recently undergone extensive trials to compare the glycaemic response observed after administration of dasiglucagon with that of placebo and currently marketed glucagon, the results are exciting for Zealand Pharma. The primary result demonstrates that the median time to blood glucose recovery was ten minutes for dasiglucagon, compared to the Contact Details: Company: Zealand Pharma Contact: Emmanuel Dulac Email: [email protected] Website: www.zealandpharma.com forty minutes for a placebo and twelve minutes for the currently marketed glucagon. 99% of subjects recovered from the insulin-induced hypoglycaemia within 15 minutes following a dose of dasiglucagon, against only 2% with placebo and 95% with the currently marketed glucagon. Innovating for innovation’s own sake can sometimes backfire, especially when it fails to serve a purpose. However, Zealand Pharma have taken the opposite approach; innovating for the good of those who need it most. Using scientific research and the latest knowledge to advance medicines that could potentially save lives all over the world is exactly what innovation should be about, and for that, Zealand Pharma deserves all the success it gets. Zealand Pharma