Key Highlights

  • VKTX shares fell about 3% pre-market to $24.60, from $25.36 prior close.
  • Q3 loss of $1.55 per share was wider than the expected $1.00 to $1.06.
  • R&D expense reached $166.8 million, against about $90 million a year earlier.
  • Cash and investments totalled $960 million at September 30.
  • Management put a potential commercial launch about two and a half years away.

Spending Rises as Phase 3 Work Expands

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares edged lower in pre-market trading after third-quarter results showed a net loss of $183.2 million, or $1.55 per share, wider than the loss of $1.00 to $1.06 the market expected. Research and development expense was $166.8 million, up from about $90 million a year earlier, and general and administrative expense was $20.3 million, up from $8.6 million.

Nine-month net loss was $469.5 million, or $4.03 per share. Management expects company-wide cash use to average roughly $100 million a quarter, with some quarters higher, and said general and administrative costs should stay fairly flat in the near term before rising as commercialisation nears.

Viking is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, founded in 2012, with about 65 employees. It has no approved products and no product revenue, and it relies on contract research and manufacturing partners. Its lead candidate, VK2735, is a dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist for obesity.

Trial Progress for VK2735

Both Phase 3 VANQUISH trials of the injectable form, in obesity and in obesity with type 2 diabetes, are fully enrolled and on track, with the first patients expected to enter extension periods in early 2027. Phase 3 SUNRISE for the oral form began this month, with 68 weeks of treatment at doses of 27.5 mg, 35 mg and 55 mg.

Part 1 of a maintenance study was positive. Weight loss at week 21 ranged from about 16% to 19%, and a cohort kept on 17.5 mg weekly reached about 22% at week 33 with no plateau. Patients moved to every-other-week or monthly dosing kept 82% to 97% of their weight loss, against 61% for placebo. Part 2, testing oral and further injectable maintenance regimens, is expected in 2027. An amylin and calcitonin agonist, VK3019, is in a Phase 1 single-dose study due to finish by year-end.

Funding and Market Context

Cash, equivalents and short-term investments were $960 million at September 30, including about $550 million of net proceeds from stock and convertible note offerings of roughly $575 million gross. That funds operations into the 2027 readouts. Viking has a market capitalisation of about $3.2 billion, trailing EPS of negative $4.66 and a 52-week range of $23.82 to $43.15.

Short interest is about 21% of the float and the shares are down about 28% this year. The healthcare sector fund was indicated higher pre-market, so the decline is specific to the stock.

What Investors Will Weigh Next

The maintenance data support the case for less frequent dosing, but the loss is widening ahead of any revenue. Extension-period data in early 2027, oral trial enrolment and cash use against the $960 million balance are the next markers.