Onderstaand een lezenswaardig artikel met daarin een nuancering van de resultaten van Viking.
"Viking Therapeutics: Populations may vary
In 2018, Viking Therapeutics thrilled investors with clinical trial data for VK2809, an experimental tablet that activates a thyroid hormone receptor known to help lower cholesterol, and only that receptor. Specificity is important from a safety perspective because activating a very similar receptor can lead to symptoms of hyperthyroidism.
Viking licensed VK2809 from Ligand Pharmaceuticals thinking it could be a great new cholesterol-lowering therapy for patients who also have liver cells holding on to more lipids than necessary, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). During a 45-patient phase 2 study, people given VK2809 had significantly lower cholesterol, and that wasn't the only highlight.
Viking Therapeutics stock soared last year because investigators noticed 90.9% of patients given VK2809 achieved liver fat reductions of 30% or greater compared to just 8.9% of the placebo group. Also, the average reduction was 59.7%, compared to baseline measurements taken 12 weeks earlier.
Around a third of Americans have NAFLD, and an estimated 20 million have progressed to a state of chronic inflammation, or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). There aren't any treatments for NASH, and it's quickly becoming the leading reason people need a new liver.
It stands to reason that a treatment capable of lowering liver fat content should also stop inflammation, and Viking plans to begin a study with actual NASH patients in the second half of the year. A whopping 45.1% of Viking's float is sold short because there's a chance the results won't be much more impressive than another new drug candidate that works the same way.
Not long before Viking thrilled the crowd, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL) shares spiked because its thyroid hormone receptor agonist, MGL-3196, helped 60% of NASH patients achieve liver fat reductions of 30% or better compared to 18.4% of the placebo group.
While it looks like Viking's drug wiped the floor with Madrigal's, confident short-sellers are betting VK2809 won't look much better than MGL-3196 in the long run. That's because Madrigal's results come from a much larger study with biopsy-proven NASH patients that are much harder to treat than the 45 NAFLD patients enrolled in Viking's phase 2 trial."