(Reuters) -Viking Therapeutics’ experimental tablet helped reduce weight by as much as 3.3% in obese patients during a small early-stage study, meeting Wall Street expectations, and sending the company’s shares up 20% in premarket trading.
The drug developer said on Tuesday that it planned to test higher doses of the drug for longer durations, and expected to initiate a mid-stage study later this year.
California-based Viking is one of several companies vying for a slice of the multi-billion dollar weight-loss drugs market.
Current market leaders from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are injectable treatments, with companies also testing oral versions that they hope will offer patients a more convenient option.
“We believe that an oral agent with good tolerability could represent an attractive potential treatment option for patients with obesity. We look forward to exploring longer treatment windows and potentially higher doses,” Viking CEO Brian Lian said.
In the current study, Viking said the drug helped reduce weight by as much as 3.3% at the highest 40-milligram dose, when adjusted for placebo rates, at 28 days, in seven patients.
Before the data, at least two analysts had said they expected efficacy of between 2% and 5% in the trial.
Early-stage data from Novo Nordisk’s pill version of experimental weight loss drug amycretin showed participants lost 13.1% of their weight after 12 weeks, a bigger reduction early on than from its blockbuster drug Wegovy.
Viking last month reported data from a mid-stage study where its experimental injectable drug VK2735 helped patients with obesity lose nearly 15% of their body weight on average.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shailesh Kuber)
Source link : https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/viking-therapeutics-experimental-tablet-cuts-weight-small-2024a10005pf?src=rss
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Publish date : 2024-03-26 11:12:07
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