Zealand Pharma unveils 2030 plan as weight loss competition heats up
Celsopupo | Istock | Getty Images
Zealand Pharma on Thursday outlined an ambitious five-year strategy for its anti-obesity portfolio, warning that increasing competition from smaller players is facing market leaders Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly As more of these drugs move closer to entering the market.
The new strategy, ‘Metabolic Frontier 2030’, comes as Zealand shares have fallen 29% year to date as investors bet the market will fragment with fewer individual winners than 18 months ago, at the height of the weight-loss drug craze.
Ahead of Capital Markets Day on Thursday, the Danish drugmaker said it is targeting five drug launches, at least 10 clinical development programs and industry-leading cycle times by 2030.
The strategy will combine strategic partnerships, accelerated drug development and expanded research capabilities to create the world’s most valuable metabolic health pipeline, Zealand Pharma said in a statement.
One of the most promising drugs being developed in Zealand is petrelintide, which targets the amylin hormone in the pancreas, unlike the gut hormone GLP-1, which Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound target. The drug was jointly developed RocheIt has shown more moderate side effects than existing injectable drugs in early-stage clinical studies.
Mid-stage data on petrelintide will be released early next year, while data on a dual GLP-1 agonist called survodutide will be available through 2026.
Less prominent winner
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly currently dominate the weight-loss drug market, leading the competition by developing the only Food and Drug Administration-approved anti-obesity drugs to date. But as the market takes shape, more players are looking to join the lucrative business, which analysts predict could be worth as much as $150 billion annually by the beginning of the next decade.
While Novo Nordisk shares are having their worst year ever in 2025, down 50% to date, Eli Lilly has become an investor favorite as the Indiana-based company’s Zepbound and Mounjaro show more significant weight loss than Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy. Lilly also took the lead in new prescriptions in the United States.
On Thursday, Lilly released its first Latest data on the new generation weight loss drug retatrutide. It works differently than existing injections and appears to be more effective because it targets three different hormones that regulate appetite, as opposed to just one or two like Wegovy and Zepbound.
Lilly’s shares are holding up better as investors see the pipeline as more likely to translate into financial returns, and the company also has a diversified portfolio that goes beyond diabetes and weight-loss treatments.
Meanwhile, Zealand shares, like Novo’s, peaked in mid-2024 but gains have slowed due to bets elsewhere. Just last month, it halted development of a GLP-1/GLP-2 dual agonist called dapiglutide, citing a crowded market for obesity drugs. Instead, Zealand said it will focus resources on candidates with greater potential for clinical differentiation.
Big Pharma names AstraZeneca, amgen And Pfizer they all hope their drug candidates will take a bite out of Lilly and Novo’s market share, as will the clinical-stage players Structure Therapeutics And Viking Therapeutics.
The market credits Lilly but undervalues innovation elsewhere, according to Morningstar’s Karen Andersen. “While we see Lilly maintaining a global share of more than 50% for the foreseeable future, we think its share will stabilize as Novo and other competitors launch next-generation medicines,” he wrote in a November note. “The consensus fails to appreciate the potential of these drugs.”
Zealand Pharma shares fall by almost a third in 2025
Separately, Zealand announced an agreement with Chinese biotechnology firm OTR Therapeutics to develop oral small molecule therapies for metabolic diseases. Under the agreement, OTR will receive $20 million up front, an additional $10 million if certain conditions are met, and up to $2.5 billion related to development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
UBS analysts called the partnership “an interesting move.”
“Ahead of a catalyst-rich 2026 with the P3 survodutide trial and P2 petrelintide readout, we will be looking for expectations for these readouts, commercialization strategy and any color on potential pricing for survodutide and how Zealand views OTR’s small molecule drugs as potential differentiation against other oral GLP-1s already close to market,” the analysts said.
Zealand also said it would open a new research site in Boston that combines peptide medicine expertise with AI-driven drug discovery.
