Viking Therapeutics, Inc.

Welcome to the Viking Therapeutics fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session. To ask a question at that time, please press the star key followed by one on your touchtone phone. If anyone has difficulty hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, February 7, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Vikings Manager of Investor Relations, Stephanie Diaz. Please go ahead.

Hello, and thank you all for participating in today's call. Joining me today is Brian Land, Vikings President and CEO, and Greg Zanti, Vikings CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to caution that comments made during this conference call today, February 7, 2024, will contain forward-looking statements under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Vikings' expectations regarding its development activities, timelines, and milestones. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date, and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any statement made today. I encourage you to review all of the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning these and other matters. I'll now turn the call over to Brian Leon for his initial comments.

Thanks, Stephanie. And good afternoon to everyone dialed in by phone or listening on the webcast. Today, we'll review our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31st, 2023, and provide an update on recent progress with our clinical programs and operations. 2023 was an exciting year for Viking, highlighted by important data releases from two of our four clinical programs. With respect to our obesity program, during the year, we announced positive results from a first in human phase one clinical trial of VK2735, a dual agonist of the GLP-1 and GIP receptors. In this study, subjects dosed with VK2735 demonstrated statistically significant weight loss with favorable safety and tolerability. Following these results, we initiated the Phase II trial, called Venture, to further evaluate VK2735 in patients with obesity. We expect to report top-line results from this study later this quarter. During the year, we also initiated a Phase I clinical trial evaluating an oral formulation of VK2735. We expect to report results from this study later this quarter. Viking made good progress with other pipeline programs during the year as well. In May, we announced positive top-line results from the Phase IIb voyage study of our thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist, VK2809, in patients with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and fibrosis. This trial met its primary endpoint with patients receiving VK2809 demonstrating statistically significant reductions in liver fat, as well as other important measures compared with patients treated with placebo. We look forward to reporting the 52-week biopsy data from this study in the first half of 2024. On the financial side, we completed 2023 with a strong balance sheet thanks to our continued diligence in managing expenses, along with a successful public offering of common stock, which resulted in gross proceeds of approximately $288 million. These funds will be used to support the continued advancement of our pipeline programs through multiple clinical milestones. I'll provide further details on our operations and development activities after we review our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. For that, I'll turn the call over to Greg Zanti, Vikings Chief Financial Officer.