Viking Therapeutics lost $183.2 million in the third quarter, or $1.55 per share, against a loss of $90.8 million, or $0.81 per share, a year earlier, the company reported on October 28 in results furnished to the SEC. Research and development spending was $166.8 million in the quarter, and the nine month loss reached $469.5 million, or $4.03 per share. The wider loss is the cost of running a Phase 3 obesity program at full speed, not a revenue shortfall: Viking has no marketed products.
The program expanded again in the quarter. The SUNRISE Phase 3 program for the oral tablet form of VK2735, the company’s dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist, was initiated, making it the third and fourth registration trials under way. The ongoing VANQUISH program tests the weekly subcutaneous form over 78 weeks at doses of 7.5, 12.5 and 17.5 milligrams: VANQUISH-1 enrolled about 4,500 adults with obesity and VANQUISH-2 about 1,000 adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes. The earlier Phase 2 VENTURE study showed weight reductions of up to 14.7 percent after 13 weekly doses with no sign of a plateau.
Viking also reported positive results from its first VK2735 maintenance dosing study, in which patients moved from weekly induction to less frequent dosing, and started Part 2 of that study, testing daily oral, every other week and monthly subcutaneous maintenance against placebo. Its second metabolic candidate, the dual amylin and calcitonin receptor agonist VK3019, is nearing completion of a Phase 1 single ascending dose study, with a 28 day multiple ascending dose study expected to start in the first quarter of 2027.
The balance sheet is built for the burn. Concurrent offerings of common stock and convertible senior notes in the quarter raised about $575 million gross and about $550 million net, lifting cash, cash equivalents and short term investments to $960 million at September 30, from $706 million at the end of 2025. At the third quarter spending pace, that cash funds the four trials and the start of commercial build out, but Viking’s valuation still rests entirely on Phase 3 data that has not yet read out.