Viking Therapeutics (VKTX -1.71%) stock is soaring. Two years ago, the share price hovered just above $2. Today, shares trade around $62. At Friday's prices, a paltry $100 investment in 2022 would have grown to more than $2,700!
Is there still time for you to take advantage? Absolutely.
Viking Therapeutics stock may keep soaring
Viking develops therapies to treat obesity. Two of its drug candidates -- VK2809 and VK2735 -- are currently in phase 2 trials, with promising early results. Patients using VK2735, for example, experienced a mean body weight reduction of up to 15% in just 13 weeks.
Viking is achieving drug pipeline success at the right time. The global market for weight loss drugs is just beginning to take off. Goldman Sachs sees the anti-obesity drug market reaching $100 billion by 2030. "The chronic weight management market is undergoing an inflection," explains one of the firm's analysts, "with potential for solid growth ahead and a peak opportunity that, by our estimates, could ultimately yield some of the highest grossing drugs of all time."
There will be plenty of competition. Roche's CT-388 candidate, for example, recently showed an average weight loss of 19% in a small phase 1 trial. But with a market cap of just $7 billion, plus a few more early stage drug candidates, Viking would only need to capture a small segment of its target market in the coming years to justify its valuation. With $963 million in available capital, it should have no problem getting its drugs to market should phase 3 trials complete successfully.
Don't be surprised to see shares exhibit extreme volatility from here. Viking's drug pipeline, while promising, is still years out from being commercialized. And results from competing drugs could dramatically affect the share price at any moment. But if you want to bet on the long-term wave of anti-obesity drugs, Viking remains a great pick for patient investors.
