Viking Therapeutics unveiled promising test results Tuesday for a liver disease treatment, and VKTX stock hit a record high after initially yo-yoing on the news.
The company is working on a treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. With NASH, patients experience inflammation and damage in the liver unrelated to alcohol consumption. But Viking's treatment led to a statistically significant reduction in liver fat over 12 weeks compared to a placebo.
Patients taking Viking's drug also had significantly lower levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides as well as reduced levels of other lipid abnormalities.
On the stock market today, VKTX stock surged 12.1% to close at 24.64. That superseded a previous high at 24.03 achieved in 2018.
VKTX Stock: Large NASH Market
The market for NASH treatments is massive and growing. Last year, research firm Insight Partners said the market will reach $24.3 billion by 2028 from $1.6 billion in 2021.
But treating NASH has proven tricky. A treatment must either lower the level of liver damage known as fibrosis without leading to worsening NASH symptoms. Or, it must improve NASH symptoms without leading to any worsening in fibrosis.
Over 12 weeks, patients who received Viking's drug — dubbed VK2809 — showed a 52% average reduction in liver fat vs. the placebo group. Up to 85% of patients experienced a 30% reduction in liver fat. The median reduction in liver fat ranged from 38% to 55% for recipients of Viking's experimental treatment.
"These results demonstrate VK2809's impressive potency at reducing liver fat, which we believe represent the largest reductions reported for an oral agent at this stage of development," Viking Chief Executive Brian Lian said in a written statement.
Viking Shares Remain At A High
Shares of Viking stock are trading near a record high and remain well above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, according to MarketSmith.com.
VKTX stock has a best-possible Relative Strength Rating of 99. This puts shares in the top 1% of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance, according to IBD Digital.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
