VKTX Oral Obesity Readout
Yesterday’s $VKTX oral obesity Ph1 data - VK2735
Pretty clean signal 📸
FIG 1. Oral VK2735 Ph1 results
Most notable was favorable adverse events (AEs) 📸
especially for oral GLP-1, where GI issues can be worse than subQ
Focus for safety analysis should be on 20 and 40 mg doses
since those have notable activity 📸
Nausea signal for VK2735 likely real
well known for GLP-1s
FIG 2. Oral VK2735 Ph1 results : GI tolerability
How does 2735 compare to other oral obesity?
2735 oral looks more tolerable
than $GPCRs lead oral GLP-1: GSBR-1290 📸
But VKTX to try higher dose(s) moving forward
So we will see tolerability at higher doses for 2735
Big differences between 2735 and 1290?
• 2735 is a dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist
• 1290 is GLP-1
⇨ Maybe 2735 will have better activity?
FIG 3. GSBR-1290 Weight Reduction
• 2735 is a peptide
⇨ Difficult to manufacture
• 1290 small molecule
⇨ Cheap to mfg
⇨ Current capacity to dose 100s millions patients/yr
Of course, drug needs to be tolerable and effective enough
Or demand won’t require many doses
FIG 4. GSBR-1290 manufacturability
How will this plays out?
Good to have many obesity candidates progressing thru clinic
& GPCR has huge upside potential
Current enterprise value = $1.5B
vs.
VKTX EV = $8.5B
& GPCR working on more oral small molecules for obesity
incl. dual GLP-1/GIP
So GPCR may still be worth some funny money?
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Speaking of competitive oral obesity...
There’s $NVO’s oral amycretin obesity asset
⇒ Released Ph1 obesity data earlier this month
⇒ Average weight loss of 13.1% after 12 weeks!
BUT
⇒ No safety data released
& Peptide? (SubQ trial ongoing)
So likely mfg issues
FIG 5. Oral amycretin Ph1 data
& there is $TERN’s oral obesity ... for another post 💡
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What is market opportunity for oral GLP-1s?
VKTX CEO again discussed likely market position for oral GLP-1s
Before & after subQ
Main efficacy from subQ
But
There was no plateau at 28 days,
So we’ll see how much weight loss oral VK2735 can drive
Maybe best to go slow and steady with oral
Less GI issues
Then maybe subQ after oral lead-in won’t have as many GI issues?
& post SubQ is probably huge opp for oral
Since maintaining pts on weekly subQ for months/years is a challenge
+ maybe oral is a good option for a lot of people even without subQ?
Probably not enough weight loss for severe obesity
But can’t most of us over 40, benefit from losing 5-10% weight?
Lots of questions
Exciting future
Great to see continued progress
for our fight to reduce obesity
& live healthier lives for longer
Biopharma Rocks!
This article is not investment or legal advice.
Article history:
First published 03/27/24 EJV & AV
#VKTX #GPCR #NVO #TERN