(Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s enthusiasm for all-things weight loss is plowing full-steam ahead.
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Shares of drug developer, Ventyx Biosciences Inc. soared by a record 151% on Wednesday as investors glommed onto results for a competitor’s experimental drug that suggested a Ventyx therapy targeting neurodegenerative disorders — including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases — could work at reducing body weight as well.
Wall Street praised the potential for Ventyx’s drug, dubbed VTX3232, after a similar drug from NodThera spurred weight loss in mice.
The mice getting NodThera’s drug reduced their body weight on par with what was seen with Novo Nordisk A/S’ semaglutide — the chemical compound in Ozempic and Wegovy, according to Piper Sandler analyst Yasmeen Rahimi. And that, she said, is a strong positive for Ventyx’s therapy.
Read more: How Weight-Loss Drugs Became Billion-Dollar Blockbusters
“This asset provides major upside in the blockbuster obesity space,” Rahimi wrote in a note to clients.
While Ventyx’s drug is still in the early stages of being tested in people, human studies — which will be key to securing an eventual drug approval — can take years. Meanwhile, the stock was pummeled in 2023, dropping roughly 93% after a series of mishaps with some of the biotech’s more developed assets.
The current crop of weight-loss medicines are known as GLP-1s but Jefferies analyst Michael J. Yee sees growing interest in novel obesity assets, especially those with alternative mechanisms. NodThera and Ventyx’s drug belong to a class dubbed NLRP3.
“We think NLRP3 fits into this theme and, if data is good, could attract pharma attention,” Yee wrote in a note late Tuesday.
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