Viking Therapeutics rode strong obesity data before a major capital raise, while Longeveron’s mid-stage setback prompted questions about its future.
Biopharma stocks saw plenty of movement in September as investors weighed clinical readouts, financing activity and the likelihood of candidate success across the sector.
Two standouts, Viking Therapeutics’ 24% jump and Longeveron’s 64% plunge, highlight differing ends of the spectrum. Overall, the broader biotech sector was comparatively subdued, with the XBI declining 3.5% for the month.
Here, BioSpace has analyzed these two sizeable stock shifts from last month and the developments driving the activity. This feature is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all public biotech movement.
Who’s hot: Viking Therapeutics (VKTX)
Viking Therapeutics stood out as one of September’s best performing biotechs. On Sept. 22, Viking’s injectable GLP-1/GIP dual agonist met Truist Securities’ “best-case scenario” in a Phase 1 readout designed to study the asset as a maintenance treatment.
Known as VK2735, the candidate elicited 17.7% weight loss at 21 weeks—efficacy that held up under less frequent dosing regimens. Analysts at William Blair said the data achieved a “maintenance trifecta”: it retained weight loss, was tolerable and weekly dosing indicates a differentiated profile.
The biotech’s stock popped more than 30% on the news, nearing $42 per share at its peak.
One day after the data drop, the California-based company proposed concurrently offering $200 million in common stock and $200 million in convertible notes, then upsized to $275.1 million in shares (7.86 million sold at $35 each) and $225 million in convertible senior notes, with the money earmarked mainly for VK2735 and its VK3019 amylin program. On Sept. 28, Viking closed the financings after underwriters fully exercised their overallotment options, totaling about $575 million in gross proceeds.
The large, dilutive financing brought Viking’s stock down over the last few days of the month, with the share price ending September 30 at $32.60, or 3.18% below where it started the month.
Who’s not: Longeveron (LGVN)
With a less positive month, cell therapy developer Longeveron plummeted more than 60% and has yet to recover, making it one of the month’s weakest stock performances. The hard hit was tied to the recent failure of a Phase 2b trial testing the biotech’s investigational stem cell therapy in a rare congenital heart disorder—and the strategic review that followed.
Laromestrocel, Longeveron’s only clinical asset, failed to improve blood flow in patients’ hearts, the company reported Sept. 16. The miss prompted Longeveron to “review all options,” with just over $10 million in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30. The biotech expects that runway to last only into the fourth quarter of this year.
Longeveron said it would continue to evaluate data from the study and communicate with the FDA to see if there’s a possible path forward for laromestrocel in the heart condition. The company touts the drug as “a pipeline in a product” and will continue to study the cell therapy in Alzheimer’s disease, age-related frailty and pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy.
As of Sept. 30, Longeveron’s stock rested at $2.69 per share, 60.15% down from the month’s start.
Editor’s note: This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an endorsement of any company or product.
