Viking Therapeutics shares more than double on ‘statistically significant’ weight-loss trial results

US biotech Viking Therapeutics’ shares more than doubled after trial data for the company’s weight-loss drug outperformed existing treatments from drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.

Viking said its weight-loss drug had led to “statistically significant reductions in body weight”, with 13 per cent weight loss relative to a placebo, in a 13-week, mid-stage trial.

San Diego-based Viking’s shares jumped 121 per cent to $85 per share on Tuesday. The results weighed on shares in Copenhagen-listed Novo Nordisk, which dipped as much as 5 per cent after the results before recovering to trade down 1.7 per cent. Eli Lilly’s share price fell as much as 2.4 per cent in early US trading before later recovering its losses.

Viking said as many as 88 per cent of patients who received the drug achieved at least 10 per cent weight loss, compared with just 4 per cent for the placebo group. Weight loss also did not plateau at the end of the trial, “suggesting further weight loss might be achieved by extended dosing period”, Viking added.

Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide drug had less than 10 per cent absolute weight reduction at all doses after its late-stage trial, noted Thomas Smith, an analyst at Leerink Partners.

While trial results are not directly comparable, Smith said the results were ahead of investors’ expectations and a “clear win for Viking Therapeutics”, with the data appearing “to compare favourably” with Lilly’s drug.

High demand for weight-loss drugs has helped Novo Nordisk become Europe’s largest company by market capitalisation, while Eli Lilly overtook Johnson & Johnson as the world’s largest pharmaceutical company last year.

While competitors to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are far from bringing their drugs to market, Viking’s results show that the dominance of the two drugmakers in the sector could be challenged in the years ahead.

Brian Lian, Viking’s chief executive, said the company would meet regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration to assess next steps by the middle of the year. Lian said it “seems more than likely” that Viking will launch a further trial specifically to study the drug’s efficacy.

Approval for Viking’s weight-loss drug is at least three years away, as the FDA will require at least two more trials, noted Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

On Monday, German company Boehringer Ingelheim announced results showing that its weight-loss treatment delivered strong results for patients suffering from a liver disease, in a sign of how therapies can also be used to treat conditions associated with obesity.

Carinne Brouillon, Boehringer Ingelheim’s head of human pharma, said she expected to bring the drug to market in 2027 or 2028, making it the third drugmaker to commercialise the new kind of weight-loss drug.

Like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, Viking’s VK2735 mimics the GLP-1 hormone that can suppress appetite. VK2735 also mimics another hormone, the glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide receptor, like Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, which is thought to enhance the effect of the GLP-1 benefits.

Other drugmakers are also hoping to enter the lucrative weight-loss drug market, which is expected by Goldman Sachs analysts to exceed $100bn in value by the end of the decade.

AstraZeneca has signed a licensing agreement with Chinese company Eccogene, which is developing a weight-loss pill, while Swiss pharma group Roche bought obesity drug developer Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7bn in December.