• Carlos de Sousa appointed as Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer with effect from 1 December 2015

• Bringing a wealth of international business experience and partnering expertise, Carlos de Sousa will help underpin Zealand's strategy for accelerated value creation "from Peptide to Patient"

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zealand informs of the appointment of Carlos de Sousa to the position as Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer. Carlos de Sousa has joined Zealand as a new member of the Senior Management team with effect from 1 December 2015.

Carlos de Sousa brings extensive experience and a vast contact network from numerous senior management positions in the international pharmaceutical and biotech industries, including roles at Nycomed/Takeda, Pfizer, Novartis, BBB Therapeutics and Newron Pharmaceuticals Throughout his career, he has worked extensively with business development including in-licensing, partnering, mergers and acquisition, corporate leadership, strategy, marketing and medical affairs. Carlos de Sousa is a Medical Doctor by training and holds an executive MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York.

Britt Meelby Jensen, President and Chief Executive Officer at Zealand, commented: "I and the rest of Senior Management are pleased to welcome Carlos de Sousa to Zealand. He is a highly experienced executive with a strong international track record and a broad range of competencies to complement our team. We have recently outlined Zealand's strategic path towards accelerated value creation from Peptide to Patient with a focus on expanding and advancing our scientific expertise and proprietary pipeline of specialty medicines. An important element is to strengthen our business through external innovation and collaborative partnerships, and I am confident that Carlos will add significant value as we execute on our strategy."

Carlos de Sousa, new Chief Business Officer at Zealand, commented : "I am delighted to be joining Zealand at this exciting point in its development. The product pipeline is impressive, and the expertise and commitment demonstrated throughout the company leave attractive opportunities for further growth. I very much look forward to working with the management, the strong Business Development team and the rest of the organization to excel on these opportunities for the benefit of patients and to create value for our shareholders."

For further information, please contact:

Britt Meelby Jensen, President and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +45 51 67 61 28, email: bmj@zealandpharma.com

Hanne Leth Hillman, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications
Tel: +45 50 60 36 89, email: hlh@zealandpharma.com

About Zealand Pharma

Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq Copenhagen: ZEAL) ("Zealand") is a biotech company with leading-edge scientific expertise in turning peptides into medicines. Zealand has a growing proprietary pipeline of novel specialty drug candidates and a mature portfolio of products and projects under license collaborations with Sanofi, Helsinn Healthcare and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Zealand's first invented medicine, lixisenatide, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 analogue for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, is marketed globally (ex-US) as Lyxumia(r) by Sanofi and under regulatory review in the US. The license agreement with Sanofi covers also a single-product combination of lixisenatide and insulin glargine (Lantus(r)) which is on track for regulatory submission in the US in December 2015 and in the European Union in Q1 2016.

The proprietary pipeline includes; danegaptide for ischemic reperfusion Injuries in Phase II development; ZP1848 for Short Bowel Syndrome in Phase II development; and the stable glucagon analogue, ZP4207, in Phase II preparation both as a single-dose rescue pen for severe hypoglycemia and for multiple-dose use to treat and control mild to moderate hypoglycemia; as well as several preclinical peptide therapeutics.

The company is based in Copenhagen (Glostrup), Denmark. For further information about Zealand's business and activities, please visit: www,zealandpharma.com or follow us on Twitter @ZealandPharma

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