Eva Steiness MD

Professor Eva Steiness is a “First Mover” in Danish medicine: The first female Dean at the Faculty of Health Science, University of Copenhagen, the first female professor in Clinical Pharmacology in Denmark (Aarhus University), the first female Senior Vice President at Lundbeck AS and the first woman on its Board of Management. Prof. Steiness, who holds an MD and a DSc in Medicine from the University of Copenhagen, also became the first female biotech entrepreneur in Denmark when she founded Zealand Pharma. With 10 years in academia, and hands-on knowledge from the Danish hospital system, a doctorate in Digoxin-clinical Pharmacology, Eva Steiness had the deep understanding of medicine that it took to revitalize the Lundbecks R&D organization.

In her decade at Lundbeck AS, Prof. Steiness created a broad discovery and clinical pipeline most importantly registering and launching Cipramil® (citalopram), an antidepressant drug, that reached blockbuster status. Danish press calls Prof. Steiness the “Mother of Cipramil.” Prof. Steines's accomplishments at Lundbeck resulted in a successful IPO in 1999 and the company is among the top 20 listed on the Danish stock exchange today.

Prof. Steiness founded Zealand Pharma A/S in 1998 and for a decade was its CEO. Under Prof. Steiness’s leadership, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 agonist (lixisenatide) for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes was developed and licensed to Aventis (today Sanofi) in 2003. Lyxumia® (lixisenatide) was first launched into the European market in 2013. Today Zealand Pharma is listed on the Danish Stock Exchange. Before joining SERODUS in 2011, Prof. Steiness founded Newpharma, a consultancy company, offering management support to biotech companies, capitalizing on her many years of successful entrepreneurship in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

Prof. Steiness listed SERODUS on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2013. Prof. Steiness has held a string of leadership positions among others: Chairman of the Board of Genmab, Member of the Board in several of Lundbeck’s affiliates, Member of the Board of Directors of the Oticon Foundation, Member of the Medical Research Council and Chairman of the Danish Governmental Advisory Board on Research Politics.