In this article LLY VKTX NOVO.B-DK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Weight loss drug concept. Cr | Istock | Getty Images Shares of Viking Therapeutics jumped 16% in premarket trading Thursday after the biotech company a day earlier announced plans to advance its experimental weight loss injection into a late-stage trial earlier than expected.
It brings the San Diego-based company one step closer to joining the highly popular market for GLP-1s , which analysts say could grow into a $150 billion market by the end of the decade. Viking is one of several small and large drugmakers hoping to compete in the space against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly , whose weight loss and diabetes GLP-1s have skyrocketed in demand over the last two years. Shares of both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly fell around 2% in premarket trading Thursday.
Viking previously said it was expecting to start another mid-stage trial on its weekly injection, called VK2735, after reporting positive results from another phase two study in late February. But after receiving written feedback from the Food and Drug Administration, the company has decided to move the injection directly into a phase three trial, CEO Brian Lian said during an earnings call on Wednesday. Lian said the company is preparing to meet with the FDA in the fourth quarter to discuss the design and timing of that phase three trial, with plans to start the study afterward.
That decision will likely shave a year off of Viking's development t.