by Ian Cooper
With growing interest in obesity treatments, Goldman Sachs just raised its market estimates from $100 billion to $130 billion.
“The estimate was revised as the firm projects the number of Americans on anti-obesity drugs could reach ~19M by 2030, up from its previous estimate of ~15M. This indicates a ~17% market penetration among U.S. adults,” as noted by Seeking Alpha.
While that’s certainly great news for obesity treatment heavyweights like Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO), it’s also fueling momentum in up-and-coming treatment stocks, like:
Viking Therapeutics (VKTX)
With Viking Therapeutics, the company is seeing good success with its GLP-1 obesity drug trials. It already reported that its Phase 2 VENTURE trial successfully achieved is primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints. It also said patients receiving VK-2735 demonstrated weight loss after 13 weeks, rating up to 14.7% from baseline weight.

Better, VKTX is about to start Phase 2 trials of its once-a-day weight loss pill. Viking said patients who received the pill once a day lost up to 5.3% of their weight on average, or up to 3.3% more than those who took a placebo, at 28 days, as noted by CNBC.
Altimmune (ALT)
The company’s pemvidutide treatment led to weight loss while preserving lean mass, as noted in trial data. In addition, data from a 48-week trial showed that about 74.5% of weight loss was linked to fat tissue. About 25.5% was linked to lean mass, which may give it a leg up against the competition. “We believe that pemvidutide has the potential to distinguish itself broadly from other therapies for the treatment of obesity,” ALT CEO Vipin Garg added.
Structure Therapeutics (GPCR)
GPCR is moving forward with its 36-week Phase 2b obesity study later this year. Two, GPCR believes its GSBR-1290 obesity treatment is “uniquely positioned as an oral, non-peptide small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist that can be manufactured at scale and significantly help address the growing obesity epidemic, which current peptide GLP-1s are not able to do.”
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