Weight loss drugs concept.
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shares Viking therapy The biotech company announced the day before that its stock price rose 16% in pre-market trading on Thursday. plan is advancing its experimental weight-loss injection into late-stage trials earlier than expected.
It brings the San Diego-based company one step closer to joining the popular GLP-1 market, which analysts say could grow into a $150 billion market by the end of this century.
Virgin is one of several small and large drugmakers looking to compete in the space Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and CompanyDemand for its weight loss and diabetes GLP-1 has surged over the past two years.
Shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly were both down about 2% in premarket trading Thursday.
Viking previously said it expected to begin another mid-stage trial of a weekly shot, called VK2735, after reporting positive results from another phase 2 study in late February.
But Chief Executive Brian Lian said on an earnings call Wednesday that the company had decided to move the shot directly into a Phase 3 trial after receiving written feedback from the Food and Drug Administration.
Lian said the company is preparing to meet with the FDA in the fourth quarter to discuss the design and timing of the Phase 3 trial, and plans to start the study later.
The decision could shave a year off Viking’s development timeline for the shot, BTIG analyst Justin Zelin said in a note on Wednesday. Zelin said analysts currently expect the drug to be available in 2029.
During the call, Lian added that Viking expects to test VK2735 as a monthly injection in future studies. That could make the treatment a more convenient option than Eli Lilly and Company’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, both of which are taken once a week.
Viking Therapeutics’ drug promotes weight loss by targeting GLP-1 and another hormone called GIP. These hormones are the same ones targeted by Eli Lilly and Company’s Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro.
Patients who received weekly Viking injections in the Phase 2 trial lost 14.7% of their body weight after 13 weeks, compared with a 13.1% weight loss on placebo.
Viking is also developing an oral version of VK2735. In an early-stage trial, the pill caused a 3.3% weight loss compared with a placebo.
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