Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) stock jumped 36% on Sept. 22. The catalyst was new maintenance data for VK2735, its GLP-1/GIP obesity candidate, which showed that patients maintained most of their weight loss after switching from weekly shots to every-other-week or monthly dosing.
Investors shouldn't oversimplify this to just another win in the obesity drug market. This study wasn't about how much weight patients lose. It was about how long they keep it off, and how often they need a shot to do it.