Viking Therapeutics stock jumps nearly 30% after drugmaker moves weight loss injection to late-stage trial

Shares of Viking Therapeutics jumped 28% on Thursday after the biotech company a day earlier announced plans to advance its experimental weight loss injection into a late-stage trial earlier than expected. 

It brings the San Diego-based company one step closer to joining the highly popular market for GLP-1s, which analysts say could grow into a $150 billion market by the end of the decade. 

Viking is one of several small and large drugmakers hoping to compete in the space against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, whose weight loss and diabetes GLP-1s have skyrocketed in demand over the last two years. 

Shares of Eli Lilly closed more than 4% lower on Thursday, while Novo Nordisk's stock closed almost 3% lower.

Viking previously said it was expecting to start another mid-stage trial on its weekly injection, called VK2735, after reporting positive results from another phase two study in late February. 

But after receiving written feedback from the Food and Drug Administration, the company has decided to move the injection directly into a phase three trial, CEO Brian Lian said during an earnings call Wednesday. 

Lian said the company is preparing to meet with the FDA in the fourth quarter to discuss the design and timing of that phase three trial, with plans to start the study afterward.

That decision will likely shave a year off of Viking's development timeline for the injection, BTIG analyst Justin Zelin said in a note Wednesday. Currently, analysts estimate that the drug will launch in 2029, Zelin said. 

During the call, Lian added that Viking expects to test VK2735 as a monthly injection in a future study. That could make the treatment a more convenient option than Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, which are both taken once a week.

Viking Therapeutics' drug promotes weight loss by targeting a GLP-1 and another hormone called GIP. Those are the same hormones that Eli Lilly's Zepbound and diabetes counterpart Mounjaro target.

Patients who received weekly doses of the Viking's injection in a phase two trial lost up to 14.7% of their body weight, or 13.1% when compared with a placebo, after 13 weeks. 

Viking is also developing an oral version of VK2735. That pill caused 3.3% weight loss when compared to a placebo in an early-stage trial.