Viking Therapeutics could be a new winner in the GLP-1 space

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GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have taken the pharmaceutical world by storm, Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY) making a name for the class of drugs through their own landmark brands. But what about the other pharma players pushing into the weight-loss space?

Julie Hyman is joined by RSE Ventures Co-Founder and CEO Matt Higgins for the latest installment of Good Buy or Goodbye to talk about why he is bullish on Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) in its GLP-1 innovations, and why he is bearish on glucose monitoring device manufacturer DexCom (DXCM) as more consumers adopt weight-loss drugs to lower the riskssof diabetes.

"We all know what Eli Lilly, and what Novartis has done. But it's a massive TAM [total addressable market], it's a $150 billion market. And this is a biotechnology firm, probably like 30 people, and they are onto something pretty amazing," Higgins says about Viking. "They are working on two products: one is a shot that you would take once a month, and the other is a pill, which is the holy grail and early studies show that it's being very well tolerated."

Higgins cites the growing use cases for GLP-1s, particularly in the treatment of pre-diabetic patients, as a forceful headwind to DexCom. Its glucose monitoring devices are only designed for a single sort of use and does not allow DexCom to pivot very far from its central business.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

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