Zealand set for a $20 million milestone payment from Sanofi following NDA for LixiLan

Biotech firm Zealand Pharma (Nasdaq Copenhagen: ZEAL) on Wednesday said it is set to receive a $20 million milestone payment from the French drug major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) following the submission of a New Drug Application for LixiLan to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

LixiLan is an investigational single-injection, fixed-ratio combination of lixisenatide and insulin glargine for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Insulin glargine, marketed globally by Sanofi as Lantus (insulin glargine), is the world-wide most prescribed basal insulin product for the treatment of diabetes but will soon face generic competition.

Britt Meelby Jensen, chief executive of Zealand, said: “I am pleased to confirm that all the pipeline and business milestones we set out to achieve in 2015, have now been successfully met, and the $20 million milestone payment from Sanofi strengthens our financial position as we move into 2016. We will continue to focus on advancing our pipeline of novel proprietary medicines to accelerate value creation for patients and our shareholders, and we foresee another year with a strong activity level and substantial news flow.”