Key Stats for Zealand Pharma Stock
- Price change for Zealand Pharma stock on Friday Mar. 06: -31%
- $ZLDPF Share Price as of Mar. 6: $36
- 52-Week High: $106
- $ZLDPF Stock Price Target: $99
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What Happened?
Zealand Pharma (ZLDPF) stock is on track for its worst day ever, falling more than 31% after mid-stage trial results for its weight-loss drug petrelintide disappointed investors.
The trial showed patients lost an average of 10.7% of their body weight over 42 weeks.
Analysts had expected somewhere between 13% and 20%. That gap was enough to send Zealand Pharma stock tumbling. Shares of partner Roche fell 3% as well.
CEO Adam Steensberg pushed back quickly.
Speaking to CNBC, he argued the trial wasn’t designed to maximize weight loss. It had a near 50/50 male-to-female split, and women typically lose more weight than men on these drugs.
Most competitors load their trials with 70% female participants. He also said he was “confident” that in optimized conditions, petrelintide could deliver weight loss in the mid-teens.
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What the Market Is Telling Us About Zealand Pharma Stock
Zealand Pharma stock dropped because weight loss numbers still drive investor sentiment in this space — even if the CEO disagrees with that framing.
Steensberg has long criticized what he calls the “weight loss Olympics,” where companies and markets obsess over how much weight patients lose rather than whether they can actually stay on the drug.
His point isn’t wrong.
About half of patients on GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy stop taking them within a year, mostly due to side effects and high costs.
A BMJ study found that patients who stopped GLP-1 medications returned to their starting weight within 2 years.
Petrelintide works differently. It targets amylin, a hormone that affects appetite and slows digestion, rather than the GLP-1 or GIP receptors targeted by Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
In Thursday’s trial, there were no cases of vomiting, and no patients quit due to GI side effects. That tolerability profile is genuinely notable.
Jefferies analysts said petrelintide showed “Wegovy-like efficacy” with near-placebo tolerability, calling it “a viable drug.”
But they also noted it would likely be seen as second-best to Lilly’s own amylin drug in development.
Barclays added that the market was unlikely to give Zealand credit for a Phase 3 improvement two years from now.
Zealand Pharma stock now sits at its lowest level since August 2023.
The company plans to start a Phase 3 trial later this year.
Whether investors come back will depend on how convincingly the data improves — and whether the tolerability story eventually wins out over raw weight loss numbers.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
