Viking Therapeutics said Tuesday that its closely watched oral obesity drug had succeeded in an early-stage trial and that it planned to advance the medicine into the next phase of development.
The top-line results released Tuesday were only from a Phase 1 study, which primarily focuses on a drug’s safety. But Viking said that in the study, its medicine led to a roughly 3.3% placebo-adjusted average weight loss after four weeks and that it showed no safety issues.
advertisement
In preview notes, analysts had said that investors would want to see between 3% and 4% placebo-adjusted weight loss. Shares of San Diego-based Viking were up more than 20% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.
Subscribe Log In
Previous article：
How the messy conversation about Dolly changed bioethics
Next article： Cancer drug shortages should be causing more outrage
Next article： Cancer drug shortages should be causing more outrage
