Street View: Analysts expect Viking's obesity pill to remain competitive despite trial setback

Viking Therapeutics

20/08/2025 12:56

** Viking Therapeutics' VKTX.O experimental weight-loss pill, VK2735, helped patients lose 12.2% of their body weight in a mid-stage trial, but fell short of Wall Street's top-end expectations of 15%

** Seventeen of 19 brokerages rate stock "buy", 2 "hold"; their median PT is $90.59 - data compiled by LSEG

COMPETITIVE POSITIONING INTACT

** Oppenheimer ("Outperform", PT:$100) believe profile remains favorable, with room for further improvement through dose adjustments

** BTIG ("Buy", PT:$125) says drug's "competitive positioning intact despite market selloff" after mid-stage data

** Adds "while the safety and tolerability profile was not as clean as in Phase 1, as perhaps expected at higher dose levels, we view oral VK2735 data as competitive among the leading oral obesity agents in development"

** William Blair ("Outperform") believes it is unlikely Viking will advance higher dose versions of 90 mg or 120 mg daily regimen due to high discontinuation rates

** J.P.Morgan ("Overweight") thinks it is reasonable starting at lower doses and gradually increasing it could lead to competitive tolerability profile without significantly impacting efficacy in longer studies

 (Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole)

 ((siddhi.mahatole@thomsonreuters.com))