BRIEF—Viking Therapeutics’ VK2735 trial shows promise in obesity

Viking Therapeutics’ shares surged more than 80% pre-market on Monday, after it announced positive top-line results from the company's Phase II clinical trial of VK2735 as an obesity treatment.

The compound is a dual agonist of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors in development for the potential treatment of various metabolic disorders such as obesity.

The Phase II VENTURE trial successfully achieved its primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints, with patients receiving VK2735 demonstrating statistically significant reductions in body weight compared with placebo.

Additionally, the study showed VK2735 treatment to be safe and well tolerated with the majority of treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) being categorized as mild or moderate.

Patients receiving weekly doses of VK2735 demonstrated statistically-significant reductions in mean body weight after 13 weeks, ranging up to 14.7% from baseline.

Based on these findings, Viking intends to meet with the US Food and Drug Administration and discuss next steps in the development of VK2735.