Viking Therapeutics stock jumped 25% to $87 per share on Tuesday after the pharmaceutical company released promising clinical trial results for its experimental weight loss pill. It’s the latest development in the race among several pharmaceutical companies to introduce new weight loss drug alternatives to the current market leaders Wegovy, Zepbound, and Ozempic.
A small clinical study found that patients taking a daily 40mg dose of Viking’s weight loss pill lost an average of up to 5.3% of their body weight in just 28 days, the company said Tuesday. Viking said it will launch a phase 2 trial of the drug later this year.
David K. Song, an investment partner at Tema ETFs, noted that Novo Nordisk’s next-gen weight loss pill, amycretin, resulted at an average weight loss of 4% during roughly the same period.
“I think this read-out meets market expectations for a competitive profile,” Song said in a statement.
In February, Viking released the results of its phase-two clinical trial of an injection of the same drug. The company said that users achieved an average 14% weight loss from baseline numbers, plus 13% compared with a placebo after 13 weeks of treatment. At the time, Viking said it planned to meet with the Food and Drug Administration to discuss the next steps for the drug’s development.
Investors jumped on the news at the time, sending Viking Therapeutics stock soaring by almost double in late February.
Where the weight loss drug war stands
After the launch of the diabetes medication Ozempic in 2017, the demand for weight loss drugs has skyrocketed in recent years.
Fervent demand for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic over the last year had the company racing to keep up in supply. The rush of sales at the Denmark-based company even buoyed the nation’s GDP in 2023.
Several pharmaceutical companies are now chasing the hype, working to introduce new drugs to get in on the demand. In addition to Viking Therapeutics, Regeneron, Amgen, and Zealand Pharma are all developing weight loss drugs.
Unsatisfied with its own success, Novo Nordisk is also developing an even more powerful weight loss drug.