Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) delivered a gain worthy of a technology growth stock last year. The pharma giant’s shares soared 39%, which is a pretty impressive 12-month gain for a company in this industry. Why such momentum? Lilly is the maker of one of the world’s most sought-after products: weight loss drugs.<\/p>\n
The company’s tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and as Zepbound for weight loss, has driven tremendous gains in revenue in recent quarters. And the outlook for obesity drug growth is strong, with a forecast for a market of almost $100 billion by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n
If you missed out on Lilly, though, don’t worry: Here’s another healthcare stock to buy in 2026 — and it may benefit from the same booming market.<\/p>\n
Image source: Getty Images. <\/p>\n
The company I’m talking about is Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX), a biotech<\/a> that specializes in treatments for metabolic and endocrine disorders. Viking doesn’t yet have a product on the market, but its injectable and oral candidates for weight loss have reached late-stage development, in phase 3 and phase 2, respectively.<\/p>\n Viking’s VK2735, in both injectable and oral form, works in much the same way as Lilly’s tirzepatide. These are dual GIP\/GLP-1 receptor agonists<\/a>, and they act on hormones involved in digestion to regulate blood sugar levels and appetite. Viking has reported solid results from trials so far. For example, in the phase 2 trial of the injectable, decreases in body weight reached as much as 14.7% without any plateau in weight loss. This was after 13 weeks.<\/p>\n It’s difficult to directly compare current and potential weight loss drugs, as trial parameters and use in the real world don’t make it an apples-to-apples comparison. But VK2735’s performance so far makes it very possible for this potential drug to compete with Lilly’s tirzepatide as well as Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide.<\/p>\n Though the pharma giants lead the market right now, demand has been consistently high, suggesting there’s room for other players to enter the market and succeed.<\/p>\n Of course, Viking isn’t there yet, and companies may hit stumbling blocks during any step of the development journey — even during late-stage trials or during regulatory review. So this biotech stock carries some risk, particularly because the company doesn’t have other commercialized products providing a source of revenue.<\/p>\n But, if the company succeeds, rewards could be great considering the need for weight loss drugs today and the projections for demand down the road, too. It’s also important to keep in mind that a larger player may aim to partner or even acquire Viking. All of this means that, for investors who don’t mind the risk that goes with drug development, Viking is a top biotech stock to buy in 2026.<\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Viking Therapeutics, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Viking Therapeutics wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $460,340!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,123,789!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 937% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 194% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of January 23, 2026. <\/p>\n Adria Cimino<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk and Viking Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n