Viking Therapeutics stock soars on robust weight loss drug data
Shares of Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) jumped after the biotech reported positive mid-stage trial results for its experimental weight loss drug. Patients taking the medication lost up to 14.7% of their body weight, making the company a potential competitor in the GLP-1 drug race.
Yahoo Finance's Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman break down the details.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: Shares of Viking Therapeutics. Julie, we're mentioning this earlier today, and for good reason. Look at that. After the company reported positive results for its experimental weight-loss drug, only up about 130% there, Julie.
So, I mean, honestly, besides AI, I can't think of a thing we talk about more than weight-loss drugs. And the news here, though, so Viking says, OK, we have this mid-stage trial, Julie. And it suggests, I guess, that the company could have a rival to the weight-loss drugs offered from, as you know, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, and it's the numbers in this study from this Viking experimental drug, that patients lost as much as 14.7% of their body weight. This was a weekly shot, although, reportedly, Viking is also exploring an oral medication as are many of these other companies who make the GLP-1s. This is only mid-stage, as you said.
JOSH LIPTON: Yup.
JULIE HYMAN: So it still has to do late-stage testing. So it's still quite early. But kind of to my point earlier, people see something they think is going to hit and they are in there like a shot. Every time that we show that stock today, every time I've looked at it today, it's up a little more.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, it's incredible. And it's not just, you know, when you think about this, it wasn't obviously just the results of this trial. It's also because, clearly, investors must be betting that this is a takeout now, target too, for somebody in big pharma. By the way, somebody you don't see that often is just on the Street, everybody on the same side of the boat. 10 buys, zero holds, zero sells.
