Zealand Pharma, OTR Therapeutics Sign Deal to Develop Metabolic Disease Treatments

Zealand Pharma A/S and OTR Therapeutics have entered into a strategic collaboration and license agreement aimed at discovering and developing novel therapies for metabolic diseases.

The partnership combines Zealand Pharma’s expertise in obesity and metabolic health with OTR Therapeutics’ proprietary research platform and capabilities in drug discovery and development. The companies said the agreement will focus on creating next-generation therapeutics to expand treatment options for patients with metabolic disorders.

“We are excited to partner with OTR Therapeutics. The multi-program collaboration will expand our metabolic health pipeline into oral small-molecule therapeutics for targets where we have deep biological expertise, complementing our strong peptide R&D platform,” said Utpal Singh, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Zealand Pharma. “This partnership is an early testament—with more to follow—to the execution of our updated strategy to further strengthen and evolve our platform, broadening treatment options for people living with overweight, obesity, and other metabolic diseases.”

Zhui Chen, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of OTR Therapeutics, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Zealand Pharma, a company renowned for its legacy and expertise in metabolic diseases. This collaboration represents a strong endorsement of our proprietary platform and strategic vision, and our proven ability to drive innovation and deliver quality and speed in execution.”

Financial Terms

Under the agreement, OTR Therapeutics will lead research and preclinical development using its proprietary discovery platform, while Zealand Pharma will handle clinical development, regulatory submissions, and global commercialization.

OTR Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment of $20 million, which could rise to $30 million under certain conditions. The deal includes potential milestone payments tied to preclinical, development, regulatory, and commercial achievements, with total consideration reaching up to about $2.5 billion, mostly from commercial milestones. OTR Therapeutics will also be eligible for tiered single-digit royalties on worldwide net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.