Viking Therapeutic's new GLP1 impresses at ObesityWeek 2024
At ObesityWeek 2024, Viking Therapeutic showed study results on their new drug VK2735 -- 8% body weight loss at 28 days, in the highest dose.
Viking Therapeutics is a relatively new entrant to the GLP1 space that has been building buzz for a while now:
It turns out the buzz was well deserved – the work they've been doing on a new GLP1 that they call VK2735 (Dual GLP-1/GIP agonist) was just presented at ObesityWeek and it was absolutely smashing hit.
The Phase 2 VENTURE study found that large doses of VK2735featured an 8% weight loss at 28 days.
What is VK2735?
VK2735 is a current code-name for the drug under development, but it's a GLP1 Receptor Agonist under development by Viking Therapeutics.
It's a Dual GLP1 and GIP agonist, which is similar to how Tirzepatide (i.e. Mounjaro, Zepbound, produced by Eli Lilly) works:
Check out our quick explainer
If you want to learn more about what GLP1 is versus GIP, see this article we published earlier:
GLP1.Guide Staff
The recent Phase 2 VENTURE study that was conducted by Viking showed the efficacy of VK2735, and has been the talk of ObesityWeek and the market at large (since Viking Therapeutics is publicly traded).
Viking has a full overview of the drug and it's effects on their website which is well worth reading through:
Importantly, there is coverage of the study that was conducted as well (emphasis added):
In September 2023, Viking initiated the Phase 2 VENTURE trial of VK2735 in patients with obesity. During the first quarter of 2024, the company announced positive top-line results from this study in which patients receiving weekly doses of VK2735 demonstrated statistically significant reductions in mean body weight after 13 weeks, ranging up to 14.7% from baseline.
Patients receiving VK2735 also demonstrated statistically significant reductions in mean body weight relative to placebo, ranging up to 13.1%. Statistically significant differences compared to both baseline and placebo were observed for all doses starting at Week one and continuing throughout the 13-week treatment period.
Reductions in body weight were progressive through the course of the study, with no plateau observed for weight loss at 13 weeks. All doses of VK2735 also demonstrated statistically significant differences relative to placebo on the key secondary endpoint assessing the proportion of patients demonstrating at least 10% weight loss. Up to 88% of patients in VK2735 treatment groups achieved ≥10% weight loss, compared with 4% for placebo.
What were the results of the 2nd Phase VENTURE study?
While Viking has yet to release all the results of the VENTURE study, many who attended ObesityWeek 2024 were able to take screenshots of the posters presented:
$VKTX coming in hot with the #Vikingtide data! pic.twitter.com/2dYqnV6kxG
— On The Pen (@ManOnThePen) November 4, 2024
We were able to dig up a fully accounting of the poster contents from quantisnow.com:
(reproduced below)
Change in Body Weight Following 28 Days of Dosing with Oral VK2735
Multiple Ascending Dose Level1,2 | Placebo (n=18) | VK2735 2.5 mg (n=8) | VK2735 5 mg (n=6) | VK2735 10 mg (n=6) | VK2735 20 mg (n=8) | VK2735 40 mg (n=7) | VK2735 60 mg (n=9) | VK2735 80 mg (n=9) | VK2735 100 mg (n=9) |
Mean baseline body weight3 | 98.3 kg | 102.3 kg | 95.3 kg | 97.1 kg | 111.3 kg | 90.0 kg | 107.7 kg | 102.0 kg | 102.7 kg |
Mean change from baseline body weight4,5 | -1.4 kg | -0.3 kg | -0.8 kg | -1.3 kg | -3.6 kg | -4.8 kg | -4.4 kg | -5.3 kg | -8.2 kg |
Mean percent change from baseline4,5 | -1.4 % | -0.3 % | -0.8 % | -1.1 % | -3.5 % | -5.1 % | -4.1 % | -5.2 % | -8.2 % |
Placebo-adjusted mean percent change from baseline4,5 | - | 1.0 % | 0.6 % | 0.3 % | -2.2 % | -3.7 % | -2.7 % | -3.9 % | -6.8 % |
p-value vs. placebo5 | - | - | - | - | 0.0174 | 0.0001 | 0.0026 | <0.0001< span> | <0.0001< span> |
Percent reporting ≥5% weight loss | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % | 25 % | 57 % | 38 % | 63 % | 100 % |
p-value vs. placebo6 | - | - | - | - | 0.0933 | 0.0033 | 0.0243 | 0.0011 | <0.0001< span> |
Note the "Mean percentage change from baseline" Above – on Placebo it is 1.4%, and on the highest dose (100mg) it is 8.2%.
This is obviously huge news to be celebrated, and most are hearing about Viking Therapeutics today because it's stock is seeing a close to 20% increase from this news.
How would people take VK2735?
VK2735 can actually work both as an injection and as a orally (as a pill), which was released in the lead up to the presentation at ObesityWeek 2024:
This is encouraging as it's much easier to take GLP1s orally (Novo Nordisk has the Rybelsus line), and it's also equally important to not increase the requirement for manufacturing of injection pens.
What's next for VK2735?
Viking needs to complete Stage 3 studies, as we can see from their Pipeline page:
