Friday, 26 July 2024
by BD Banks
Shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) were skyrocketing 32.3% as of 11:21 a.m. ET on Thursday. The big gain came after the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company provided its second-quarter update following the market close on Wednesday.
Viking reported no revenue and a net loss of $22.3 million, or $0.20 per share, in Q2. However, the company’s financial results weren’t the big story in the quarterly update. Instead, investors were excited that Viking plans to advance its experimental obesity drug VK2735 into a phase 3 clinical study after receiving written feedback from a meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Earlier this year, Viking announced overwhelmingly positive results from its phase 2 study of VK2735. Patients receiving the obesity drug achieved up to 13.1% placebo-adjusted mean weight loss after 13 weeks of treatment.
This weight loss was better than the amount achieved by Eli Lilly‘s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy in clinical trials. With VK2735 advancing into late-stage testing, investors know that Viking will be closer to potentially launching what could be a blockbuster drug.
Viking Therapeutics stock still has a lot of room to run, in my opinion. The prospects for VK2735 in phase 3 testing look good. Viking also has other promising pipeline candidates, especially VK2809, which targets nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Risk-averse investors should probably stay on the sidelines with Viking. However, I think the biotech stock is a great pick for aggressive growth investors.
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Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.