VK2735: What to Know About Viking's Weight-Loss Shot and Pill

VK2735 gets more attention per dollar of revenue than almost any drug in development, because Viking Therapeutics is a small biotech competing directly with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Its stock moves on every data release, which means the drug gets written about the way a stock gets written about: breathlessly, and with the timelines blurred.

Here is the straight version. What VK2735 is, what its trials actually showed, when its Phase 3 data arrive, and what you can and cannot do about it today.

What is VK2735?

VK2735 is an investigational dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist from Viking Therapeutics [1]. It activates the same two receptors as tirzepatide, the ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, but it is a different molecule made by a different company. They have never been compared head to head.

What makes VK2735 unusual is that Viking is developing two versions with the same active ingredient:

• A once-weekly subcutaneous injection, now in Phase 3
• A once-daily oral tablet, which finished Phase 2 and is heading into Phase 3

No other dual or triple agonist is being developed in both forms with the same ingredient. Lilly’s pill, orforglipron (Foundayo), is a completely different small molecule from tirzepatide. Novo’s Wegovy pill is oral semaglutide, the same ingredient as the Wegovy injection but a single-receptor drug.

Viking’s argument is that the pair gives flexibility: start on a pill because it is easier, switch to the injection for maximum effect, or move back to a pill to maintain. That is a commercial pitch, not a proven clinical strategy, and no trial has yet tested that sequence.

What did the VK2735 injection trials show?

The Phase 2 trial was called VENTURE (NCT06068946), with 176 participants, completed in February 2024 [4].

Participants lost up to 14.7% of body weight after 13 weekly doses [1]. Final results were published in January 2026 in Obesity, the journal of The Obesity Society.

Thirteen weeks is the detail that made people pay attention. Most weight-loss trials run 68 to 80 weeks, and most of the weight comes off gradually over that period. Getting close to 15% in just over three months, with the weight-loss curve still falling at the end of the study, is a steeper trajectory than the approved drugs showed over the same early window.

But steep early trajectories are not the same as a bigger final number. Weight loss in this class slows and eventually plateaus, and where it plateaus is what a Phase 3 trial measures. A 13-week result cannot tell you where a 78-week result lands. Anyone extrapolating VENTURE out to a final percentage is guessing.

Where do the VANQUISH Phase 3 trials stand?

Viking ran straight into Phase 3 with two trials, both now fully enrolled and closed to new participants [2][3]:

VANQUISH-1 (NCT07104500)

• 4,500 participants with obesity, or overweight plus a weight-related condition
• Weekly doses of 7.5 mg, 12.5 mg or 17.5 mg, or placebo
• 78 weeks of treatment
• Primary endpoint: percent change in body weight at week 78
• Enrollment complete. Viking reported in January 2026 that VANQUISH-1 had enrolled approximately 4,650 adults, against the 4,500 target in the registry record [1]
• Primary completion: July 1, 2027

VANQUISH-2 (NCT07104383)

• 1,100 participants with obesity and type 2 diabetes
• Same dose arms and duration
• Primary completion: July 1, 2027

Both trials include an extension that lets people originally assigned to placebo cross over to active drug at the end, which is now standard in large obesity trials.

Filling a trial of roughly 4,600 people, and closing both VANQUISH studies to new participants, tells you something real about demand: there are far more people who want access to these drugs than there are trial slots.

Primary completion on July 1, 2027 means topline data in the second half of 2027, usually within one to three months of that date. Full publication typically follows six to eighteen months later.

What did the VK2735 pill trials show?

The oral Phase 2 trial (NCT06828055) enrolled 280 participants and completed in June 2025 [5].

Reported results: up to 12.2% average weight loss from baseline after 13 weeks of once-daily dosing. Up to 80% of participants on VK2735 lost at least 10% of body weight, versus 5% on placebo. Separation from placebo was statistically significant from week 1 at all doses above 15 mg [1].

Viking has guided to starting the oral Phase 3 program in the fourth quarter of 2026 [1]. A Phase 3 that starts in late 2026 with a standard 72- to 78-week design will not read out before 2029, which makes 2030 or later the realistic window for an oral VK2735 approval.

For comparison, the two oral GLP-1 drugs already approved in the United States are the Wegovy pill (oral semaglutide 25 mg, approved December 22, 2025, 16.6% average weight loss at 64 weeks in OASIS 4) and Foundayo (orforglipron, 12.4% at 72 weeks in ATTAIN-1). The oral VK2735 number is early-stage and from a much shorter study, so it is not directly comparable to either.

What about monthly or every-other-week dosing?

This is one of the quieter parts of Viking’s program and arguably one of the most interesting.

In October 2025 Viking started a maintenance dosing study testing whether people can hold their weight loss on VK2735 given every other week or once a month instead of weekly [1]. In its second-quarter 2026 update, the company said results were expected “later this quarter,” meaning the third quarter of 2026. As of September 14, 2026, no results had been published.

Why it matters: if reduced-frequency dosing works, the cost of long-term treatment falls, the side-effect burden may fall, and the practical difficulty of staying on a drug for years falls with it. It is the same problem Amgen is attacking from the other direction with MariTide, which is designed for monthly dosing from the start.

This is also a good moment for a caution. Nothing here is a reason to change how often you take a medication you are currently prescribed. Dosing schedules are set by the approved label and by your prescriber. Trial results about reduced-frequency dosing describe experiments, not instructions.

When could VK2735 actually be approved?

Working from the registry dates rather than from speculation:

• Phase 3 injection data: second half of 2027 (primary completion July 1, 2027)
• FDA submission: typically a few months to a year after topline data, assuming the results support it
• FDA review: usually 10 to 12 months for a standard review, about 6 to 8 months for priority review
• Launch: usually one to three months after approval

That chain points to 2029 as the realistic earliest launch for the injection, with 2030 or later for the pill. Viking has not issued launch guidance, so this is an estimate built from registry dates and typical FDA timelines.

It also assumes the trials succeed. They may not. Roughly half of drugs entering Phase 3 in metabolic disease never reach approval, and a positive Phase 2 does not guarantee a positive Phase 3. Several drugs in this very class have disappointed at the Phase 3 stage after strong earlier data.

Can you buy VK2735 online?

No, and this is the section that matters most for reader safety.

VK2735 is not approved in any country. Viking Therapeutics does not sell it to anyone. There is no compounded version, no gray-market legitimate version, and no “research chemical” version that is the same substance.

Vials advertised online as VK2735, often labeled “research use only” or “not for human consumption,” come from unregulated suppliers. Nobody independent has verified what is in them, how much is in them, whether they are sterile, or whether the peptide is even the right one. Because VK2735 has never been approved anywhere, there is not even an authentic reference product to compare against.

The FDA has warned publicly about unapproved GLP-1 products sold for weight loss, including reports of dosing errors and adverse events [6]. That warning applies with extra force to drugs like VK2735 that have no approved version anywhere in the world.

If you want VK2735, the only lawful route in the United States is a clinical trial.

Can you join a VK2735 trial?

Not right now for the injection. Both VANQUISH trials are fully enrolled and listed as active but not recruiting [2][3].

Your realistic options:

1. Watch for the oral Phase 3. Viking has guided to a fourth-quarter 2026 start. When a Phase 3 opens, it posts sites gradually over weeks and months. Set a saved search for “VK2735” at ClinicalTrials.gov and turn on email alerts so new sites reach you as they appear.
2. Consider other open trials in the class. If your goal is access to an investigational incretin drug rather than to VK2735 specifically, several large Phase 3 programs were recruiting in the United States as of September 2026, including aleniglipron (ACCOMPLISH-1, NCT07654361), eloralintide (ENLIGHTEN-1, NCT07321886), enicepatide (NCT07351045), elecoglipron (NCT07667803), ribupatide (NCT07284875) and MariTide’s outcomes and switch trials.
3. Talk to a healthcare provider about approved options. If you qualify for an approved drug now, a trial that reads out in 2027 is not a treatment plan for 2026.

What is the honest bottom line on VK2735?

VK2735 is a credible late-stage drug with genuinely interesting Phase 2 data and an unusual dual-formulation strategy. It is also a drug whose pivotal results do not exist yet, made by a company that has never brought a product to market.

The three things to watch, in order:

1. The maintenance and reduced-frequency dosing results, guided for the third quarter of 2026 and still unpublished. This is the nearest real data point.
2. The oral Phase 3 start, guided for the fourth quarter of 2026. That is when new trial slots open.
3. VANQUISH topline data in the second half of 2027. That is the result that decides whether any of the rest of it matters.

Everything else being written about VK2735 right now is either stock commentary or extrapolation from a 13-week study. Neither one gets you a prescription.

Sources

1. Viking Therapeutics, Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Corporate Update, July 29, 2026 — https://ir.vikingtherapeutics.com/2026-07-29-Viking-Therapeutics-Reports-Second-Quarter-2026-Financial-Results-and-Provides-Corporate-Update
2. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT07104500 (VANQUISH-1) — https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07104500
3. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT07104383 (VANQUISH-2) — https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07104383
4. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06068946 (VENTURE Phase 2, injection) — https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06068946
5. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06828055 (VENTURE oral dosing Phase 2) — https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06828055
6. FDA, concerns about unapproved GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss — https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-alerts-and-statements/fdas-concerns-unapproved-glp-1-drugs-used-weight-loss