Watch Out, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk: Viking Therapeutics Just Started Testing a Weight Loss Drug That Goes Beyond GLP-1

Published July 18, 2026 · Category: Finance

Overview

The human appetite has more than one off switch, and drugmakers like Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) are doing their darndest to identify and develop a medicine to target every single one.

On June 24, Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) announced a phase 1 trial for one of its candidates that's attempting to flip one of those as-yet unmedicated appetite switches. That marks its first obesity candidate working outside the incretin pathway that includes GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, the hormone behind Ozempic and Wegovy and one of two hormones behind Zepbound and Mounjaro.

Details

Let's take a look at this program and determine whether it's really going to be a threat to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.

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Source

Originally published at www.fool.com.

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