Viking Therapeutics witnessed a surge in its stock value, soaring over 25% on Tuesday, following the announcement that its innovative weight loss medication demonstrated promising outcomes in a preliminary study. The company is set to advance this promising drug to the next phase of development later this year.
This development has sparked considerable enthusiasm regarding Viking’s future in the rapidly evolving weight loss medication sector. Viking stands among a group of smaller biotech firms aiming to rival giants such as Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in a market that experts predict could expand to a $100 billion industry by the decade’s end. Viking, in particular, is seen by some analysts as a strong contender or a potential acquisition target for larger corporations.
Following the encouraging results from Tuesday, Viking is planning to initiate a phase two trial of its weight loss pill later this year. This oral medication is a tablet form of the company’s experimental weight loss injection, which also showed promising results in a mid-stage trial last month. The optimism surrounding Viking’s market potential has propelled its shares up by an impressive 345% this year.
The phase one trial of the weight loss pill involved monitoring over 40 obese patients for approximately a month. Participants were administered varying doses of the medication or a placebo. Results indicated that patients taking the medication daily experienced an average weight loss of up to 5.3%, or up to 3.3% more than those who received a placebo, after 28 days.
Remarkably, up to 57% of the participants who were given Viking’s pill lost at least 5% of their body weight. In contrast, none of the placebo recipients achieved this level of weight loss, according to the company. Furthermore, patients who received higher doses of the experimental pill seemed to either maintain or increase their weight loss six days after the final dose, with weight loss figures reaching up to 3.6% more than those given a placebo.
Viking’s CEO, Brian Lian, shared in a conference call on Tuesday that the long-term durability of the weight loss remains uncertain. However, he highlighted the sustained weight loss observed in the trial as a potentially encouraging sign for patients who might miss a dose due to travel or lack of access to their medication.
“I think that’s an encouraging sign that you don’t necessarily have to take it every day,” he commented.
Viking believes that extending the treatment beyond 28 days could lead to further reductions in body weight. The trial also suggested that the pill is safe and tolerable for patient use. The majority of side effects reported were mild in severity, with gastrointestinal events being the most common. Notably, unlike other weight loss and diabetes treatments, Viking’s pill did not lead to vomiting among participants. Additionally, patients taking the placebo reported diarrhea more frequently than those treated with the oral drug.
Analysts have drawn comparisons between Viking’s weight loss injection and Eli Lilly’s injectable drug Zepbound, as both medications mimic two naturally occurring gut hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, which play roles in reducing food intake and appetite. In contrast, Novo Nordisk’s weight loss injection, Wegovy, targets only GLP-1.