Viking Therapeutics NASDAQ: VKTX reported first-quarter 2026 financial results and outlined progress across its obesity pipeline during an earnings call held April 29, 2026. Management emphasized rapid advancement of its dual GLP-1/GIP agonist VK2735 in both injectable and oral formulations, expansion of a maintenance-dosing study intended to inform Phase 3 extension designs, and plans to begin clinical testing of a new amylin agonist program.
Financial results: higher R&D spend drives wider loss
Chief Financial Officer Greg Zante said research and development expenses rose sharply to $115.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with $41.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Zante attributed the increase primarily to higher costs tied to clinical studies, manufacturing for drug candidates, consultants, salaries and benefits, and preclinical studies, partially offset by lower stock-based compensation.
General and administrative expenses were $14.0 million, essentially flat versus $14.1 million a year earlier. Zante said the modest decrease reflected lower legal and patent services and stock-based compensation, partly offset by increased consulting, compensation, and “scientific and disease education.”
Viking reported a net loss of $158.3 million, or $1.37 per share, compared with a net loss of $45.6 million, or $0.41 per share, in the prior-year quarter. On the balance sheet, the company ended the quarter with $603 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, down from $706 million at December 31, 2025.
In the Q&A, Zante said the difference between reported operating results and cash movement was “really timing.” Looking ahead, he said cash usage and expense in the next quarter should be “around where we were in quarter one, maybe a bit lower,” with spending expected to “taper down a little bit” toward the second half of the year. Zante added that overall usage remained in line with prior projections and that Viking anticipated having cash “into 2028 and through the catalysts we’ve talked about, including the oral phase III data points.”
VK2735 Phase 3 VANQUISH program: enrollment complete and auto-injector introduced
President and CEO Brian Lian said Viking continued to advance its Phase 3 VANQUISH clinical program for VK2735, a weekly subcutaneous dual agonist of the GLP-1 and GIP receptors. The program includes two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter studies: VANQUISH-1 in adults with obesity and VANQUISH-2 in adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Lian said enrollment in VANQUISH-1 was completed in the fourth quarter of 2025 and that Viking completed enrollment in VANQUISH-2 during the first quarter of 2026. He later specified VANQUISH-1 enrolled approximately 4,500 patients by November 2025, and VANQUISH-2 enrolled approximately 1,000 patients.
Participants are randomized to weekly doses of 7.5 mg, 12.5 mg, 17.5 mg, or placebo, with a 78-week treatment period. The primary endpoint is percent change in body weight compared with placebo at week 78, with secondary and exploratory endpoints including the proportion of patients achieving at least 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% weight loss. Each study includes an extension portion for continued treatment after completion of the primary dosing period, including for patients initially randomized to placebo.
Lian also highlighted that both VANQUISH studies began transitioning participants from vial-and-syringe dosing to an auto-injector during the quarter. He said Viking conducted a bioequivalence study in the fourth quarter of 2025 to enable the transition and that the changeover was “proceeding smoothly.”
Asked about baseline characteristics and operational metrics such as screen failures and retention, Lian said Viking plans to present baseline demographics for VANQUISH-1 at the European Congress on Obesity and for VANQUISH-2 at EASD. He added that nothing appeared “out of the ordinary” and that populations were “kind of down the middle of the fairway.”
On expected efficacy differences between diabetic and non-diabetic populations, Lian said type 2 diabetes patients are generally “a little bit more resistant to weight loss,” and he would not be surprised to see more robust effects in the obesity-only trial relative to the type 2 diabetes study.
Oral VK2735: Phase 3 planned for Q4 2026 and tablet count targeted
Lian said Viking plans to advance oral VK2735 into Phase 3 development following an end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA, with initiation currently expected in Q4 2026. He said Viking would provide additional study design details closer to the start.
When asked why the start shifted versus a prior expectation for Q3, Lian said “nothing really changed,” but noted the company is “moving incredibly fast and scaling up dramatically.” He described manufacturing scale-up and process optimization—“making 100 tablets is different than making a million tablets”—as factors that take time, adding that Viking expects to initiate “as early as possible in the Q4.”
Lian also addressed tablet burden, saying Viking aims for no more than two tablets for higher doses, with lower doses as a single tablet. He said participants in the Phase 2 trial took four tablets and the feedback suggested dissatisfaction with that regimen.
Viking’s newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer Neil Aubuchon, who joined the company in Q1 and previously spent nearly 17 years at Eli Lilly, also weighed in on market dynamics for oral obesity treatments. Aubuchon said early signs indicate oral therapy is “growing the market” more than cannibalizing injectables. He added that existing marketed oral options are GLP-1s, while Viking’s would be an oral dual agonist, which he said could position it as “the first dual agonist oral on the market.”
Maintenance dosing study expanded to eight subcutaneous cohorts; data expected in Q3
Viking is running a maintenance dosing study intended to evaluate various maintenance regimens and potentially inform the 52-week extension portions of VANQUISH. Lian said the study began in October 2025 and completed enrollment in Q1 2026 in less than three months.
In response to analyst questions, Lian detailed a decision to expand subcutaneous maintenance cohorts from four to eight and to defer the oral maintenance cohorts to a later part of the study. The study includes an initial induction period of weekly dosing, then a transition to maintenance regimens or placebo. Lian said the 19-week induction period was driven by the time needed to titrate to the 22.5 mg dose and keep patients at that dose for a short period before transitioning everyone at the same time.
The subcutaneous maintenance cohorts include the original four and four additional arms:
- Original cohorts: 22.5 mg monthly, 20 mg monthly, 17.5 mg monthly, and 7.5 mg every other week
- Added cohorts: 15 mg monthly, 10 mg monthly, 10 mg every other week, and 5 mg every other week
Lian said Viking expects to report results from the subcutaneous portion in Q3 2026, with oral maintenance results expected in the first half of next year. He added that Viking may add additional oral cohorts, including “a few more doses as well as potentially alternative regimens.”
On how maintenance regimens may be incorporated into the VANQUISH extensions, Lian said patients will transition at week 78 and the extension is planned for 52 weeks. He said there will be “more than one dosing arm” in the extension and that Viking intends to select the “most effective arms and doses” based on the maintenance study results, without committing in advance to a specific number of monthly versus every-other-week regimens.
Asked what success would look like in the maintenance readout, Lian said the “best case scenario” would be continued weight loss with a potentially slower slope after transition. He described Viking’s “base case” as relatively flat weight change—“less than really a few percent either way”—and said a sharp rebound would be the worst case.
VK3019 amylin program: IND filed; Phase 1 planned
Lian said Viking filed an IND for its lead amylin receptor agonist, VK3019, and pending clearance expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial later in the quarter. He described the initial clinical plan as a single-agent program beginning with a single-ascending dose (SAD) study followed by a multiple-ascending dose (MAD) study, similar to the “playbook” used for VK2735. He also said the company had begun “combo talks” involving VK2735 for longer-term potential combinations, but that early work would focus on understanding VK3019’s basic properties.
In response to questions about why VK3019 was selected, Lian said the compound showed strong receptor potency and a pharmacokinetic profile he believes may support weekly dosing. He added that in rodents it appeared “better than cagrilintide” and that in obese monkeys it seemed to provide better weight loss than VK2735, while noting he did not have specific figures on hand during the call.
Management also pointed to organizational build-out as programs advance. Lian said Viking added personnel across scientific and operational areas including supply chain, manufacturing, and quality, and highlighted the appointment of Aubuchon as the company’s first Chief Commercial Officer to lead commercialization planning for VK2735.
About Viking Therapeutics NASDAQ: VKTX
Viking Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the company's pipeline leverages small-molecule approaches to target hormone signaling pathways implicated in conditions such as non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes and muscle wasting disorders.
The company's lead programs include VK2809, a thyroid hormone receptor‐beta agonist designed to reduce liver fat and improve lipid profiles in patients with NASH and dyslipidemia, and VK5211, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) aimed at enhancing muscle mass and function in individuals with muscle wasting conditions.
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