Viking Therapeutics, Inc.

Welcome to the Viking Therapeutics second quarter 2024 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will hold a Q&A 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, July 24, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Vikings Manager of Investor Relations, Stephanie Diaz. Please go ahead, Stephanie.

Hello, and thank you all for participating in today's call. Joining me today is Brian Lynn, Vikings President and CEO, and Greg Santee, Vikings CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to caution that comments made during this conference call today, July 24, 2024, will contain forward-looking statements under the SAPAR Group provision of the U.S. Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Viking's 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 Lynn for his initial comment.

Thanks, Stephanie, and good afternoon to everyone listening in by phone or on the webcast. Today we'll review our financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2024, and provide an update on recent progress with our clinical programs and operations. The first half of 2024 has been an exciting time at Viking. During the first quarter, we announced positive results from the Phase II Venture Trial evaluating VK2735 for the treatment of obesity. This trial demonstrated impressive reductions in body weight after 13 weeks of treatment. We also announced the initial results from a Phase I trial, evaluating a novel oral formulation of VK2735 in healthy volunteers, which showed encouraging reductions in body weight and excellent tolerability after 28 days of dosing. The positive momentum from these readouts continued into the second quarter with the announcement of the 52-week histology results from our Phase IIb voyage trial, evaluating VK2809 for the treatment of NASH and fibrosis. This study successfully achieved secondary and exploratory endpoints of improvement in NASH resolution rate, fibrosis, and the combination of both. I'll summarize the highlights from these studies later in the call. During the second quarter, Viking also announced early results from a series of internally developed dual agonists of the amylin and calcitonin receptors at the 84th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. These compounds demonstrated body weight reductions, decreased food intake, and improved metabolic profile in animal models. Finally, we ended the second quarter with a strong balance sheet with over $900 million in cash, providing the resources to aggressively advance each of our pipeline programs. I'll provide further details on our operations and development activities after we review our financial results for the second quarter and six months ending June 30th. For that, I'll turn the call over to Greg Zante, Vikings Chief Financial Officer.