Viking Therapeutics announced positive top-line results from a phase 2 clinical trial of the oral tablet formulation of VK2735, the company's dual agonist of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors.
The VENTURE-Oral Dosing trial successfully achieved its primary and secondary endpoints, with patients receiving VK2735 demonstrating statistically significant reductions in body weight compared with placebo. Participants receiving the highest dose (120 mg) of the oral tablet lost up to 12.2% in mean body weight after 13 weeks.
While Viking reported that the oral tablet formulation demonstrated “encouraging safety and tolerability" following 13 weeks of once-daily dosing, analysts felt differently, with Viking stock falling more than 39%.
Overall treatment discontinuation rates were 18% among placebo subjects compared with 28% among VK2735 subjects. In the high dose cohort specifically, the discontinue rate following 13 weeks of once-daily pills was 38%. The majority of reported drug-related treatment-emergent adverse events were GI in nature.