Viking Therapeutics Stock Soars 36% on Weight-Loss Drug Data. Why It's Not Too Late to Buy the Stock.
Investors looking to capitalize on the rapidly expanding weight loss drug market have increasingly more options. Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) are still the leaders, but several other drugmakers are making significant clinical headway. One of them is Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) , a clinical-stage biotech. Viking Therapeutics was having a fairly uneventful year until recently, when it posted highly encouraging results from a clinical trial, sending the stock soaring by more than 30% in one day. Let's look deeper into these results and determine what they could mean for Viking's prospects. Image source: The Motley Fool. Let's start with some background on how GLP-1-based weight loss medicines work. By mimicking naturally occurring hormones such as GLP-1, which promotes satiety, these medications help patients feel fuller for longer, leading them to eat less and aiding weight loss. Continue reading