A Viking Therapeutics drug that hits two targets to spark weight loss achieved the goals of a closely watched mid-stage clinical trial, but with results that also show many patients stopped the therapy due to gastrointestinal problems, which investors viewed as denting the daily pill’s prospects in a growing field of oral obesity medicine contenders.

All five doses of the drug, VK2735, led to statistically significant differences compared to both baseline measures and placebo in the 13-week, dose-finding Phase 2 study, Viking said Tuesday. The greatest weight reduction — an average of 12.2%— was observed at the highest dose, 120 mg. The preliminary results show reductions in body weight that were progressive at all doses throughout the study. This weight loss did not plateau as of 13 we

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