Zealand Pharma

Director's Dealing • Sep 17, 2012

Announcement of transactions in the company's shares and related securities by
executives and their related parties

Copenhagen, 2012-09-17 10:17 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copenhagen, 17 September
2012 – Pursuant to the Danish Securities Trading Act, section 28a, Zealand
Pharma A/S shall announce transactions in the company’s shares and related
securities by executives and persons/companies closely related to them.

In this regard, Zealand Pharma announces the following transactions:

Name: Christian Grøndahl
Reason: Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific
Officer
Issuer: Zealand Pharma A/S
Type Shares
ISIN code: DK0060257814
Transaction: Sale
Trading date: 13 and 14 September 2012
Market: NASDAQ OMX København A/S
Amount (number of shares): 20,000
Price: DKK 104.84
Market value: DKK 2,096,809.95

Hereafter, Christian Grøndahl owns 140,413 shares and 98,031 warrants in
Zealand Pharma A/S.

                                  ###

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: hlh@zealandpharma.com

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. In November 2011, Sanofi filed for registration of lixisenatide in
Europe and regulatory filing in the United States is expected in Q4 2012.

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.