VKTX- rfj - I agree they will not take VK2809 to ph3 in NASH by themselves irrespective of what they said on the CC. As a company they didn't exactly get the ph2b 2809 study going very quickly as it took them 3 full years just to enroll 230 participants. (They initiated 11/2019 and didn't complete till 12/2022.) While Covid had an effect, it never should have taken 3 yrs. NASH is difficult to enroll/manage trial and they clearly need help. No way they can do this and handle everything else they have on their plate.
I think it is more likely the company gets acquired whole than 2809 gets partnered. I do think your list of ABBV, NVS, and PFE is a good one to start with. One comment on Pfizer is that they are currently studying ervogastat (DGAT2 Inhibtor) with clesacostat (Acetyl CoACarboxylase Inhibitor) in an ongoing Ph 2 that has fast track status so I'm not sure if that would be a conflict. I would add that Gilead and Boehringer Ingelheim are large pharma who have tried and failed before in NASH so they probably have a strong interest in partnering or acquiring a drug that works.
My top pick for a buyout would be ABBV though- AbbVie also doesn't have much in the way of a metabolic pipeline and they have been pretty open about wanting to acquire something to replace what they are losing in Humira sales (not to mention likely losses in Botox cosmetic/therapeutics). I bet they could find 15 or 20 bill to spend on Viking. ;-)
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