Viking Therapeutics stock doubles on weight-loss drug trial results

Viking Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: VKTX) more than doubled on Tuesday after reporting positive results of a trial involving its weight-loss drug.

Viking’s GLP-1 significantly reduces weight

VK2735 helped participants lose 14.7% of their body weight in thirteen weeks in a Phase 2 trial.

Viking Therapeutics is developing the GLP-1 receptor agonist as an injectable as well as an oral pill. Brian Lian – its chief executive said in a press release today:

The news arrives only weeks after $VKTX said it ended its financial 2023 with $362 million in cash. Wall Street had a consensus “buy” rating on Viking Therapeutics stock even before the positive trial results it announced this morning.  

VK2735 is safe and well tolerated

Shares of Viking Therapeutics are rallying today because the VENTURE trial met not just its primary endpoint but “all secondary endpoints” as well.

The study also established the company’s treatment for obesity and diabetes as “safe and well tolerated”, as per the press release on Tuesday.

$VKTX now plans on meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “discuss next steps in the development of VK2735”.

Viking Therapeutics stock does not currently pay a dividend yield. Shares of the biotech firm have now, however, more than quadrupled since the start of this year.