If AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) makes obesity pills for obese patients with type 2 diabetes, Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) makes obesity pills for healthy adults. Maybe you wonder why would a healthy adult take an obesity pill? Well the reasons are plenty including maintaining weight loss after diet and exercise not enough to achieve ideal body weight.

Here are the key points about Viking Therapeutics' oral obesity drug VK2735:

• Early-Stage Trial Results: All doses of VK2735 demonstrate at least 10% weight loss compared with 4% for placebo. The trial is conducted in 28 days. And those with the highest dose of 100 mg lost an average of 8.2% of body weight.

• Safety Profile: Overall it is safe but some participants with 100 mg dose experienced mild side effects like nausea and vomiting.

• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with VKTX.

The analysts are concerned with the costly production that might impact the selling price of the drug because the competition in this market is tough. Eli Lily and Novo Nordisk are already a step ahead with their obesity treatments. The Orforglipron oral drug from Eli Lily showed 14.7% weight loss in mid-stage trials, while Novo Nordisk's amycretin resulted in 13.1% weight loss in an early-stage trial. Viking's shares already made 250% uptick from year to date and this Viking's obesity pill may leverage the performance even more and eventually surge the shares price.

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.