How Viking Therapeutics is poised to disrupt pharma
Shares of Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) are rising after data from the company's latest weight loss drug trial showed greater efficacy compared to competing products from Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) and Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO). On Tuesday, the company also announced that it initiated an underwritten public offering of $350 million of shares of its common stock.
Yahoo Finance Health Reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show to discuss Viking Therapeutics' latest trial results and how the data positions the company going forward.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: We've talked so much about GLP-1 and the weight loss drugs. New developments out from Viking Therapeutics, which could really, potentially, disrupt this sector even more.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Could disrupt, and Viking could even become a target for acquisition. That's really what is being set up here. They did come out yesterday with their phase II top-line results, showing stronger efficacy in weight loss than competitors Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
And so, that, really, of course, is just a mid-stage trial. It's really important to point out. So what they will have to do now is prove that this up to 15% of body weight loss is replicable in a larger population in the phase III trials. What's interesting to point out, though, is it's similar with the others in the sense that it's a weekly dose, and the side effects are also comparable.
They lost about a fifth of the participating trial members because of the nausea and the other side effects. So it will be interesting to see what the actual phase III results are. But right now, looking strong, everyone's really excited about it. And this is not-- unsimilar to what we have talked about on the show of what is expected down the pike with this GLP-1, now it's a two-company gain.
But it is one of those things that it could still be a lot of competition coming down the pike. There is at least 50 other candidates. But it really sets up something interesting for Lilly, which is, I heard your last guest talk about the strength of the company, and this is not necessarily a threat to the company itself because it has such a large market cap.
It is one of the two ironically talking about UnitedHealth. One of the two companies that many experts have told me could be one of the first trillion-dollar healthcare companies. So even with this competition, it's not really looking like, or too much of a hit for the company.
