Zealand Pharma expands management team

Danish biopharmaceutical firm makes three senior appointments

Danish biopharmaceutical company Zealand Pharma has appointed Christian Grondahl as chief scientific officer, Mats Blom as chief financial officer and John Hyttel as senior vice president for operations.

"Together they bring a wealth of experience, energy and skills to Zealand Pharma as we continue to advance our growth strategy," said David Horn Solomon, chief executive of Zealand Pharma.

Grondahl starts on 1 April, joining the firm from Novo Nordisk, where until recently he was corporate vice president for strategic alliances.

Blom, who joined the company earlier this month, was cfo of Swedish Orphan International, which recently merged with Biovitrum to form Swedish Orphan-Biovitrum of Stockholm.

Hyttel, who became senior vice president for operations on 1 March, founded Zealand Pharma in 1998. He worked for H Lundbeck for 30 years prior to joining Zealand.

Zealand's most advanced project, Lixisenatide (ZP10/AVE0010), a GLP-1 agonist for the treatment of Type II diabetes has been out licensed to Sanofi-Aventis of France. Sanofi-Aventis is completing 9 Phase III trials with first results to be released in June. Sanofi-Aventis is also commercialising a Lantus-Lixisenatide combination product for the treatment of Type II diabetes that has completed Phase I clinical studies. Submission of IND/MAA for Lixisenatide is expected in 2011.

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