Viking stands to benefit from Madrigal’s resmetirom results, says William Blair

William Blair analyst Andy T. Hsieh notes that Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (MDGL) announced that its Phase 3 MAESTRO-NASH study, which is evaluating resmetirom, a liver-directed selective thyroid hormone receptor agonist in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, met both of its dual primary endpoints after 52 weeks of treatment. The analyst views the quality of the data as transformational and paradigm-changing, and believes resmetirom will likely be the first highly effective therapeutic modality for the management of NASH. Given the identical mechanism of action as resmetirom, Hsieh believes Viking’s (VKTX) VK2809 stands to benefit from the tailwinds. He is particularly intrigued by the liver-targeted design of VK2809, which could theoretically provide improved efficacy and safety parameters. The analyst has an Outperform rating on Viking’s shares.