Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VKTX) appointed Hubert C. Chen, M.D., as chief medical officer. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company announced the appointment on June 11, 2026.

Chen brings more than two decades of leadership experience in drug discovery, clinical development, regulatory strategy, and product approvals across multiple therapeutic areas. He will report to Brian Lian, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Viking Therapeutics, and oversee clinical development, medical, and regulatory affairs.

Prior to joining Viking, Chen served as chief research and development officer at Loyal Animal Health, where he led the first FDA-negotiated effectiveness and safety requirements for longevity therapeutics. Previously, he held executive positions at Forte Biosciences, Metacrine, and Pfenex. At Pfenex, he developed clinical and regulatory strategy for Bonsity, a drug-device combination for high-risk osteoporosis, leading to approvals in the U.S. and E.U.

Earlier in his career, Chen led obesity and type 2 diabetes programs at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, including combinatorial approaches using glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), and amylin analogs.

Chen earned his M.D. from Columbia, completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and his endocrinology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. He has an undergraduate degree from Stanford and is an affiliate faculty at the University of California, San Diego.

Viking Therapeutics focuses on developing therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company is evaluating its dual agonist VK2735 in Phase 3 obesity trials and developing other compounds including VK2809 for lipid and metabolic disorders.