Zealand Pharma enters agreement with DCAI to use Gefion AI supercomputer to accelerate drug discovery and support Metabolic Frontier 2030 strategy
Press release – No. 2 / 2026
Zealand Pharma enters agreement with DCAI to use Gefion AI supercomputer to accelerate drug discovery and support Metabolic Frontier 2030 strategy
- Access to Gefion, Denmark's flagship AI supercomputer, gives Zealand Pharma access to unprecedented computational power, enabling large-scale modeling, prediction, and optimization of drug candidates
- Agreement will support Zealand Pharma's Metabolic Frontier 2030 strategy to deliver five launches, +10 clinical pipeline programs, and industry-leading cycle times from idea to clinic by 2030
Copenhagen, Denmark, January 9, 2025 – Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ZEAL) (CVR-no. 20045078), a biotechnology company transforming the future of metabolic health, today announces an agreement with DCAI, an AI infrastructure company which operates Gefion, Denmark's supercomputer, to strengthen and accelerate drug discovery.
Working with DCAI, Zealand Pharma will be able to integrate enterprise-scale artificial intelligence into its drug discovery and development workflows, generating proprietary insights that further enhance the quality and efficiency of medicine creation as the Company executes its Metabolic Frontier 2030 strategy.
Gefion's state-of-the-art infrastructure provides Zealand Pharma with scalable, flexible computational power tailored to the specific requirements of each research project. With more than 1,500 NVIDIA GPUs powered entirely by renewable energy - and combined with the Company's more than 25 years of peptide research expertise - this capability enables large-scale protein–peptide simulations with unprecedented computational capacity. The platform supports advanced characterization, simulation, and generative AI modeling for drug discovery and design.
"By integrating DCAI's powerful AI infrastructure into our research workflows, Zealand Pharma is fundamentally transforming our approach to peptide discovery and design," said Utpal Singh, Chief Scientific Officer of Zealand Pharma. "Gefion's computational power will generate new insights that augment the expertise of our scientists. These enhanced capabilities directly support our Metabolic Frontier 2030 strategy, including our ambition to deliver more than 10 clinical programs and achieve industry-leading cycle times from idea to clinic by 2030. Combined with our deep peptide expertise, this computationally driven approach positions Zealand Pharma to lead the next generation of metabolic health innovation while maintaining the rigorous scientific standards that define our leadership in peptide therapeutics."
Working with Zealand Pharma marks a significant important milestone for DCAI as we continue to accelerate life sciences and biotechnology through impactful AI" said Nadia Carlsten, CEO of DCAI. "It's rewarding to see innovative customers use our AI capabilities and translate them into measurable scientific and clinical outcomes: by providing scalable AI computing for Zealand Pharma's peptide discovery initiatives, we can help reduce development timelines and contribute to innovative metabolic treatments for patients around the world."
About Zealand Pharma A/S
Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ZEAL) is a biotechnology company focused on advancing medicines for obesity and metabolic health. Combining more than 25 years of peptide R&D expertise with a proprietary data platform that leverages advanced data‑driven and AI/ML approaches, Zealand Pharma aims to lead a new era in obesity and metabolic health.
To date, more than ten Zealand Pharma‑invented drug candidates have entered clinical development, of which two products have reached the market and three candidates are in late-stage development. The Company has collaborations with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners for research, development, and commercialization.
Founded in 1998, Zealand Pharma is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a U.S. presence in Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more at www.zealandpharma.com.
About DCAI
Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI) is an AI infrastructure and services provider which owns and operates Gefion, Denmark's flagship AI supercomputer. DCAI's mission is to lower the barrier to access the most advanced computing capabilities with guaranteed data sovereignty, enabling organizations to innovate confidently. DCAI customers include academic researchers, startups, public sector institutions, and enterprise customers that leverage the power of sovereign AI to accelerate research and innovation.
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements", as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 in the United States, as amended, even though no longer listed in the United States this is used as a definition to provide Zealand Pharma's expectations or forecasts of future events regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, the timing of the company's pre-clinical and clinical trials and the reporting of data therefrom. These forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "plan," "possible," "potential," "will," "would" and other words and terms of similar meaning. You should not place undue reliance on these statements, or the scientific data presented. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and inaccurate assumptions, which may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations set forth herein and may cause any or all of such forward-looking statements to be incorrect, and which include, but are not limited to, unexpected costs or delays in clinical trials and other development activities due to adverse safety events, patient recruitment or otherwise; unexpected concerns that may arise from additional data, analysis or results obtained during clinical trials; our ability to successfully market both new and existing products; changes in reimbursement rules and governmental laws and related interpretation thereof; government-mandated or market-driven price decreases for our products; introduction of competing products; production problems at third party manufacturers; dependency on third parties, for instance contract research or development organizations; unexpected growth in costs and expenses; our ability to affect the strategic reorganization of our businesses in the manner planned; failure to protect and enforce our data, intellectual property and other proprietary rights and uncertainties relating to intellectual property claims and challenges; regulatory authorities may require additional information or further studies, or may reject, fail to approve or may delay approval of our drug candidates or expansion of product labeling; failure to obtain regulatory approvals in other jurisdictions; exposure to product liability and other claims; interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; unexpected contract breaches or terminations; inflationary pressures on the global economy; and political uncertainty. If any or all of such forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by such statements. The foregoing sets forth many, but not all, of the factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations in any forward-looking statement. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this company announcement and are based on information available to Zealand Pharma as of the date of this announcement. We do not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. Information concerning pharmaceuticals (including compounds under development) contained within this material is not intended as advertising or medical advice.
Contacts
Adam Lange (Investors)
Vice President, Investor Relations
Zealand Pharma
[email protected]
Neshat Ahmadi (Investors)
Investor Relations Manager
Zealand Pharma
[email protected]
Rachel James-Owens (Media)
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Media Relations
Zealand Pharma
[email protected]
Amber Fennell, Jessica Hodgson, Sean Leous (Media)
ICR Healthcare
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7739 658 783
