Viking Therapeutics: A Bad Result for Roche's Weight-Management Pill Is Great News for Oral VK2735

Weight-management treatments are all the rage lately. According to Morgan Stanley, combined sales of injections that curb appetites and promote weight loss could reach an estimated $105 billion by 2030.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) is still a clinical-stage drugmaker that's developing an anti-obesity candidate called VK2735 that appears competitive with a similar drug the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in 2022 called tirzepatide. Marketed by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight management, tirzepatide sales have already exceeded $17.3 billion annually.

Many potential consumers of weight-management drugs are holding off because they don't want to jab themselves with a needle each week. Providing an easy-to-swallow solution for these patients could lead to billions in annual revenue, but clinical development of oral anti-obesity drugs has been more than a little challenging.

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Source Fool.com