As the Viking diet pill entered the later stages of clinical trials, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stock prices declined.
Zhitong Finance learned that on Thursday, the “diet drug duo” LLY.US (LLY.US) and Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) both fell more than 2% in the premarket, after Viking Therapeutics (VKTX.US) announced plans to begin late-stage trials of its obesity candidate VK2735 later this year. Viking announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2024 on Wednesday, and better-than-expected results boosted the company's stock price by nearly 17% in pre-market trading on Thursday. Viking's plans for the VK2735 indicate an accelerated schedule for its development.
Viking's plans for the VK2735 indicate an accelerated schedule for its development. Earlier, the biotech company said it would begin phase 2b testing of the candidate after receiving positive data in the mid-term trial. After receiving written feedback from the FDA, the company's CEO Brian Lian said: “We are advancing the development of this compound into phase 3, and we are currently preparing to hold a meeting with the agency to end the second phase, which we expect later this year.”
At the same time, the market for hypoglycemic weight loss treatments is fiercely competitive. Pfizer (PFE.US), AMGN.US (AMGN.US), Altimmune (ALT.US), and Schudi Biotech (GPCR.US) are also seeking a share of the lucrative diet medicine market, all working hard to develop new drugs. AstraZeneca (AZN.US) is also betting on GLP-1 related drug development pipelines, reached an exclusive license agreement with local Chinese biotech company Chengyi Biotech for ECC5004, and signed a licensing agreement worth 2 billion US dollars in 2023. Meanwhile, Roche bought American diet drug developer CarMot Therapeutics for 2.7 billion dollars this year to enter the obesity treatment market. However, these companies were not greatly affected by the news, and their stock prices remained stable before the market.