I’m an admirer of both Galloway’s and Brockovich’s blogs and podcasts, so I was bummed to have missed the HBO airing of Overtime with Bill Maher (too cheap to pay for HBO, my finances thank me later), but I caught the clip on YouTube: Erin Brockovich, Scott Galloway, and Peter Hamby. Galloway went off on GLP-1s in a way that sent me down a rabbit hole. Everyone and their cardiologist has an opinion on Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk at this point, fine, they’ve earned it, tirzepatide alone is on pace to be the best-selling drug on the planet this year. But the undercard is more interesting: the smaller biotechs trying to either out-innovate the giants or get bought by one. Three worth a look: Viking Therapeutics, Kailera Therapeutics, and Altimmune.
Viking Therapeutics (VKTX)
Viking is the “safe” pick here, which in clinical-stage biotech land still means “could drop 30% on a bad Tuesday,” but relatively speaking, it’s the cleanest story of the three. Lead asset VK2735 is a dual GLP-1/GIP agonist coming in both a shot and a pill, hedging its bets on delivery method while everyone else picks a lane. Two Phase 3 trials of the injectable version are fully enrolled, with data trickling in through Q3 2026 and a real readout in 2027. The oral version starts Phase 3 in Q4. Balance sheet is boring in the best way: ~$502M cash, $0 debt, runway into late 2027. If any of these three gets acquired first, this is the favorite.
Kailera Therapeutics (KLRA)
The hardest of the three to pin down. Kailera IPO’d in April 2026 with a neat trick: instead of discovering its own molecule, it licensed strong-looking Phase 3 data out of China from Hengrui Pharma and bought the rights to sell it everywhere else. Analysts love it on paper, six coverage initiations, all “Strong Buy,” targets as high as $57 (TD Cowen) against a stock trading in the high teens.
The catch: the oral candidate’s July data showed real efficacy (up to 11.1% weight loss) with a side of “70% of patients felt like they were on a boat,” nausea and vomiting rates that made the stock drop 10% on what was technically good news. And then there’s the part nobody puts in the headline: Kailera’s entire pipeline rests on Chinese clinical trial data, and Congress has literally started drafting language to ban the FDA from accepting that kind of data. It hasn’t passed. But it’s not nothing either, it’s a risk sitting under the whole thesis, not just this one drug.
Altimmune (ALT)
The wildcard, technically a GLP-1 stock, but really a liver-disease-and-drinking-problem stock that happens to make people lose weight as a side effect. Lead candidate pemvidutide is aimed at MASH (that’s fatty liver disease, in case your liver hasn’t introduced itself yet) and alcohol use disorder, with 7.5% weight loss showing up as a bonus in trial data. It’s got FDA Breakthrough and Fast Track status, Phase 3 starting second half of 2026, and a second readout on the alcohol trial in Q3. It’s also the only one of the three actually carrying debt (~$34.5M via Hercules Capital), and the stock’s been beaten up hard, sitting around $2-3 against a 52-week high near $7.73. Cheapest of the three. Possibly cheap for a reason.
Claude’s ranking
Viking’s the one to trust most, if forced to pick just one. Kailera’s the high-risk, watch-closely-but-not-sized-up-yet name. Altimmune’s the one worth waiting on until the MASH data lands.
Disclaimer: This is me writing publicly about my own research and my own money. It’s not financial advice, I’m not a financial advisor, and I’m not telling you what to do with your portfolio. I get things wrong sometimes (see: my earlier take on what “OB” means in insider trading data). Do your own homework before you buy anything based on something you read on the internet, including this.