01:09 PM EDT, 08/19/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Shares of Viking Therapeutics ( VKTX ) tumbled intraday Tuesday after the company released trial data of its investigational obesity pill.

In a mid-stage trial, patients receiving the highest 120-milligram dose of the VK2735 oral treatment demonstrated a reduction of up to 12.2% in body weight after 13 weeks, the company said in a statement. Analysts were expecting Viking's pill to help reduce weight by 10% to 15%, Reuters reported Tuesday.

"Reductions in body weight were progressive at all doses through the course of the study, with no plateau observed for weight loss at 13 weeks," Viking Therapeutics ( VKTX ) said.

While the study showed that the pill was "safe and well-tolerated," about 20% of participants receiving VK2735 discontinued the treatment due to an adverse event, compared with 13% among placebo subjects, according to the statement.

"The most common reasons for treatment discontinuation were gastrointestinal-related adverse events," the company said. The overall discontinuation rate was 28% among VK2735 subjects.

Shares of Vikings slumped 42% in Tuesday trade.

Vikings' stock sell-off is "overdone," Truist Securities said in a report.

"We think the sell-off today is an over-reaction on early results intended to guide late stage clinical development," Truist Managing Director Joon Lee wrote in the note. "We're buyers of the weakness today."

Both Eli Lilly ( LLY ) and Novo Nordisk ( NVO ) , which currently dominate the weight-loss market, are working to develop obesity pills. Lilly makes the Zepbound weight-loss drug, while Novo offers the Wegovy brand.

Earlier this month, Lilly said its investigational weight-loss pill, orforglipron, showed a 12.4% weight loss in a late stage trial that seemed to disappoint investors. Separately, Novo's oral semaglutide in June showed a weight-loss of 15% over 68 weeks, Reuters reported at the time.

Novo's Wegovy and its Ozempic diabetes treatment are chemically known as semaglutide.

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