Viking Therapeutics weight reduction drug shows promising trial results

Shares of Viking Therapeutics closed greater than 120% higher on Tuesday after the corporate’s experimental weight reduction drug showed promising initial results in a mid-stage trial. 

Viking Therapeutics is considered one of several small obesity drugmakers hoping to enter the budding weight reduction drug industry, which analysts say could grow right into a $100 billion market by the top of the last decade. 

Nevertheless it may not join that space by itself: Analysts have suggested that larger pharmaceutical corporations akin to Pfizer, which scrapped two of its own weight reduction drug candidates last yr, could potentially move to partner with or acquire an organization like Viking Therapeutics. Tuesday’s share move puts Viking Therapeutics’ market value at roughly $8.5 billion.

The trial followed greater than 170 patients with obesity or who’re obese, a few of whom received different dose sizes of the injectable drug or a placebo.

Those that received weekly doses of the treatment lost as much as 14.7% of their body weight from baseline, or 13.1% when adjusted for placebo, after 13 weeks. 

As much as 88% of patients who received the drug, referred to as VK2735, achieved no less than 10% weight reduction, compared with just 4% of those that didn’t receive the treatment. 

Notably, there was no evidence of a plateau in weight reduction at week 13 for any dose of the drug, suggesting that “further weight reduction may be achieved” by keeping patients on the treatment longer, Viking CEO Brian Lian said during a call with investors. 

The drug demonstrated “encouraging” safety in patients following the 13-week trial period. Patients also appeared to tolerate the drug well. 

Around 4% of patients who received any dose size of the treatment discontinued the study early compared with roughly 6% of those within the placebo group.

The vast majority of opposed events that patients experienced after starting the drug – also referred to as treatment-emergent opposed events – were mild or moderate in severity. A lot of those events were gastrointestinal, which is usually seen across all weight reduction and diabetes treatments.

That features nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation.

Viking plans to present the total Phase 2 data at medical conferences. The corporate also said it plans to fulfill with the Food and Drug Administration to debate further steps for the event of VK2735.

Individually, the corporate said it expects to release early stage trial data on an oral version of its weight reduction drug.

Viking Therapeutics’ drug targets GLP-1 and one other hormone called GIP. Those are the identical hormones that Eli Lilly’s weight reduction and diabetes drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro, goal.

Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note Tuesday that Viking Therapeutics’ latest data shows that the load loss drug market could eventually be greater than a “duopoly” of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which manufacture probably the most sought-after treatments.

However the analysts added that manufacturing the treatments “at scale to fulfill outsized demand has proven to be no easy feat,” so that provides Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly a “defensive moat.”

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