Copenhagen, 2012-04-17 17:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Company Announcement

No. 11/2012

Copenhagen, 17 April 2012 – Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL), a
Danish biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of
peptide drugs, announces that an election of employee representatives to the
Board of Directors was held earlier today. 

As a result, the existing two employee-elected board members, Christian
Thorkildsen, Project Director and Helle Størum, Associate Director of Business
Development are re-elected, while Hanne Heidenheim Bak, Project Director has
been elected as the third employee representative to join the Board of
Directors. Hanne Heidenheim Bak (1953) holds an M.Sc. in Pharmacology and has
been with Zealand Pharma since 2006. She has more than 30 years’ experience of
the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Zealand Pharma, she was Executive
Director at the Lundbeck Institute. 

As first, second and third substitute employee representatives, the following
have been elected: Jens Peter Stenvang, Senior Application Specialist;
Christine Andersen, Clinical Operations Manager; and Helle Haxgart, Accountant. 

Christian Thorkildsen and Helle Størum are elected for a four-year period and
Hanne Heidenheim Bak is elected for a two-year period. The appointments take
effect following Zealand Pharma’s Annual General Meeting to be held on
Wednesday 25 April 2012. 

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For further information, please contact:

David Horn Solomon, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +45 2220 6300



Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President for IR & Corporate Communication

Tel: +45 5060 3689, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com



About Zealand Pharma

Zealand Pharma A/S is a public (NASDAQ OMX: ZEAL) biotechnology company based
in Copenhagen, Denmark with a mature clinical pipeline of innovative peptide
drugs. The company's lead invention is lixisenatide (Lyxumia® 1)), a once-daily
GLP-1 agonist licensed to Sanofi for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. In
October, Sanofi submitted a marketing authorization application (MAA) for
lixisenatide in Europe and submission for regulatory approval in the United
States is expected in Q4 2012. Zealand Pharma also has a collaboration with
Boehringer Ingelheim covering dual acting glucagon/GLP-1 agonists, including
ZP2929, for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, and a license agreement with
Helsinn Healthcare on elsiglutide, a clinical stage GLP-2 drug for the
prevention of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea. 

Zealand Pharma specializes in the discovery, optimization and development of
novel peptide drugs, and all drug candidates in its pipeline have been
identified through the company's own drug discovery activities. Zealand
Pharma's products target disease areas where existing treatments fail to
adequately serve patient needs and where the market potential for improved
treatments through the use of peptide drugs is high. 

For further information: www.zealandpharma.com.

Note 1) Lyxumia® is the intended trademark for lixisenatide. Lixisenatide is
not currently approved or licensed anywhere in the world.