Viking’s Weight Loss Wonder: Oral Drug Shows ‘Competitive’ Efficacy, Sending Stocks Soaring

Viking Therapeutics on Monday after analysts said the drug developer’s oral obesity treatment helped people lose weight with mild side effects in a small clinical trial. VKTX shares rose 9%, analysts said, comparing favorably with some of its developing rivals.

Novo Nordisk predicts that oral treatments will dominate a market worth approximately $150 billion by the early 2030s. NOVO_B and Eli Lilly The stock has quadrupled this year because it can offer a more convenient option than LLY’s injectables.

In an early-phase clinical trial, patients receiving a higher-dose 100-milligram version of the oral drug VK2735 lost an average of 8.2% weight after 28 days, compared to 1.4% for placebo.

The data exceeded expectations for both efficacy and tolerability, said JP Morgan analyst Hardik Parikh.

Parikh said the data would allow the drug to “play a clear role in the oral obesity market” and make the company a “viable player.”

Thomson ReutersViking shares have soared in the last year

Of the nine patients receiving the highest dose in this study, six experienced mild nausea and only one experienced vomiting.

Jun Li, an analyst at Truist, said Viking’s drug “produces the best weight loss effect of any oral medication to date.”

Shares of Lilly, which is testing an oral weight-loss drug in late-stage clinical trials, fell in morning trading.

The highest dose of Lilly’s experimental drug orglyprone led to a 14.7% weight loss after 36 weeks in obese or overweight patients in a mid-phase study. Mild to moderate gastrointestinal side effects were most common, Lilly said.

At least three analysts said the Viking drug appears to continue to be well tolerated, as no patients taking the highest dose of VK2735 dropped out of the trial.

Viking’s price-to-book ratio, a common standard for stock valuation, was 8.91 on Monday, according to data compiled by LSEG. It scored 8.91 compared to 2.55 for GPCR.