Viking Therapeutics Starts Phase III Development of Obesity Pill

Viking Therapeutics VKTX announced that it has initiated the phase III SUNRISE program to evaluate the oral formulation of its investigational obesity drug VK2735. The program consists of two phase III studies. The SUNRISE-1 study will enroll obese or overweight adults without type II diabetes (T2D) who have at least one weight-related comorbidity, while the SUNRISE-2 study will enroll obese or overweight adults with T2D. Viking is targeting an enrolment of 560 adults in each study. These participants will be randomized to either one of the three dosing arms of once-daily VK2735 (27.5 mg, 35 mg, 55 mg) or placebo. The study's primary endpoint is the percent change in body weight after 68 weeks of treatment with oral VK2735 versus placebo.