09:13 AM EDT, 03/26/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Health care stocks were steady premarket Tuesday as the iShares Biotechnology ETF ( IBB ) was inactive and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) was up a slight 0.1% recently.

Viking Therapeutics ( VKTX ) was up more than 16% after it reported "positive results" for its potential anti-obesity drug VK2735. A 28-day phase 1 clinical trial of a pill form of the drug showed up to 5.3% mean body weight loss compared with a placebo, the company said.

Mesoblast (MESO) was rallying past 34% after saying the US Food and Drug Administration has indicated that the available clinical data from a phase 3 study appears to be adequate to support the submission of a proposed Biologics License Application for remestemcel-L.

Moderna ( MRNA ) was up 0.8% after saying its new COVID-19 vaccine candidate mRNA-1283 showed a "higher immune response" in the phase 3 pivotal clinical trial compared with its licensed vaccine Spikevax.