Copenhagen-based Zealand Pharma said its long-acting amylin drug petrelintide met the main goal of a Phase 2 trial in people with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes, but analysts were underwhelmed by the blood sugar figures. The company’s shares fell further on 8 October, a day after the results were published.
The ZUPREME-2 study enrolled 220 patients. Depending on the dose, mean weight loss reached up to 9.2 per cent at week 28, against about 2 per cent for those on placebo, giving the trial its primary endpoint of a statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction. The figures use the efficacy estimand, which assumes patients stayed on treatment for the whole study. Petrelintide is partnered with Roche, which licensed the drug in March 2025 to pair with its dual GLP-1/GIP agonist CT-388.
Analysts at William Blair said they were “disappointed” the drug did not produce more weight loss. By their count, Eli Lilly’s eloralintide and Zepbound each delivered about 7 per cent placebo-adjusted weight loss at the same point, while Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy reached 4 to 5 per cent. Petrelintide cut HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar, by up to 0.65 per cent, while the placebo group saw a rise of 0.23 per cent, which the bank called unusual for studies of this kind. Rival treatments have lowered HbA1c by 1.3 to 2.1 per cent.
Tolerability was the brighter side of the readout. Safety was in line with expectations, most gastrointestinal side effects were mild and occurred during dose escalation, and discontinuation rates were 1.9 per cent on the drug and 1.7 per cent on placebo. William Blair said the profile offers “an improved treatment experience” compared with Wegovy and Zepbound, and expects petrelintide to be used mainly to help patients maintain weight loss. It also sees a possible role in overweight patients and in reducing cardiovascular risk, and pointed to Zealand’s cash position, share buyback and pipeline as support for long-term value.
The trial follows a difficult week for the stock. A Phase 3 readout for survodutide, partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim, showed up to 13.1 per cent weight loss at 76 weeks according to the company, while a New England Journal of Medicine paper put the top-dose figure at 9.8 per cent. Zealand shares fell more than 8 per cent to $248.50 after that news and were trading around $240 on 8 October. Roche paid $1.65 billion upfront for petrelintide in a deal worth up to $5.3 billion, and the Phase 3a ZUPREME programme will enrol about 7,000 patients. William Blair sees no major catalysts for the drug over the coming year.
