Zealand Pharma appoints new Chief Operating Officer
1/4/2013 4:30 AM EST
Zealand Pharma A/S
Company Announcement
Zealand Pharma appoints new Chief Operating Officer
Copenhagen, 2013-01-04 10:30 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Company Announcement
No. 1/2013
- Agneta Svedberg named as successor to Senior Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer, John Hyttel, who is retiring after 14 years with the company
Copenhagen, 4 January 2013 - Zealand Pharma (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL)
announces the appointment of Agneta Svedberg as the company’s new Chief
Operating Officer. Effective from 1 February 2013, she will join the Executive
Management team to replace Senior Vice President and COO, John Hyttel, one of
the founders of Zealand Pharma, who is now retiring after having worked with
the company since its inception in 1998.
Agneta Svedberg (Swedish, born 1963) joins Zealand Pharma from Cantargia AB, a
Swedish biotech company, where she has held a position as Chief Executive
Officer. Agneta has more than 20 years of experience in drug development from
different leadership functions in both biotech and big pharma companies,
including more than ten years with Genmab A/S in Copenhagen, where she was
Global Head of Clinical Development and held various senior management
positions, the last year as Copenhagen site Manager with responsibility for 200
people. Prior to this, she was Head of Clinical Development (Europe) at Oxigene
Europe AB and also held managerial positions at Pharmacia & Upjohn AB in
Sweden. Agneta Svedberg holds a M.Sc. in Radiation Physics from Lund University
and an Executive MBA from Lund University School of Economics and Management,
Sweden.
Commenting on this announcement, David Solomon, President and CEO of Zealand
Pharma, said: "I am really delighted to welcome Agneta to our management team
as a worthy successor to John Hyttel. John has been instrumental in the
successful development of Zealand Pharma’s business and organization since the
company’s inception, and the Board and I thank him for his valuable
contribution and wish him the very best upon his retirement.
With our first drug discovery, Lyxumia® (lixisenatide) moving towards an
expected global launch in 2013, our company now stands on the threshold of a
new level of maturity and growth, and we are confident that Agneta holds the
right competences to help structure and steer our organization optimally to
support this transition, both on a strategic and operational level."
Commenting on her appointment, Agneta Svedberg said: "I am very pleased to be
joining Zealand Pharma, which I believe has a unique position as one of the
world’s leading peptide drug companies. With Lyxumia® nearing commercial stage
under a strong partnership with Sanofi, a deep pipeline of other drug
candidates, renowned peptide drug innovation capabilities and strong
financials, the company is entering a new era, and I look forward to be working
closely with the management team and the rest of the organization for its
continued success."
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For further information, please contact:
David H. Solomon, President and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +45 2220 6300
Hanne Leth Hillman, Vice President and Head of IR & Corporate Communication
Tel: +45 5060 3689, email:
About Zealand Pharma
Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: ZEAL) is a biotechnology company
based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Zealand Pharma specializes in the discovery,
optimization and development of novel peptide drugs and has a broad and mature
pipeline of drug candidates identified through its own drug discovery
activities. The company’s focus lies in the field of diabetes/metabolic
diseases, and its lead drug invention is lixisenatide (Lyxumia® 1), a
once-daily GLP-1 agonist, which is licensed to Sanofi for the treatment of Type
2 diabetes. Lixisenatide is currently under regulatory review in a large number
of countries globally, and in November 2012 the European Committee for Human
Medicinal Products issued a positive recommendation for approval of the product
in Europe.
Zealand Pharma has a partnering strategy for the development and
commercialization of its products and in addition to the collaboration with
Sanofi in Type 2 diabetes, the company has partnerships with Boehringer
Ingelheim in diabetes/obesity, Abbott in acute kidney injury and Helsinn
Healthcare in chemotherapy induced diarrhea. Zealand Pharma focuses its
activities in 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
1. Lyxumia is the proprietary name submitted to the EMA for lixisenatide. The
proprietary name for lixisenatide in the United States is under consideration.
Lixisenatide is not currently approved or licensed anywhere in the world.