Wolfe Research has downgraded its recommendation for Zealand Pharma to peer perform from outperform and removed its price target following new data for the obesity drug survodutide presented at the ADA diabetes conference.

Survodutide, which is being developed in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, demonstrated a weight loss of 13 percent after 76 weeks in the SYNCHRONIZE-1 study. However, 24.2 percent of patients discontinued treatment due to side effects, compared to 6 percent for Eli Lilly:s Zepbound and 5 percent for Novo Nordisk:s Wegovy in their respective phase 3 trials.

Wolfe assesses that these results risk weighing on both patient adherence and prescribing patterns in clinical use.

The bank has lowered its peak sales forecast for survodutide to $2.6bn from $4.9bn, compared to market expectations of approximately $5bn.

Meanwhile, Zealand:s amylin candidate petrelintide, developed with Roche, received a positive reception. However, Wolfe emphasizes that the drug remains several years away from pivotal study results and a potential launch.