New York, May 23, 2026, 18:11 EDT
Skye Bioscience finished Friday up 16.03% at $0.8293. Shares of the obesity drug developer swung through the week after a safety committee signed off on the next dose group in its nimacimab trial. The stock dropped on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, climbed Wednesday, and rose again heading into the long weekend.
Timing could be key. U.S. stocks aren’t open on Saturday, and with Nasdaq shut for Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, investors will have to wait for regular trading to pick back up Tuesday to react to the news.
Skye said Wednesday a safety committee cleared Cohort 2 for the CBeyond Part C Expansion Study after the first four participants in Cohort 1 got 400 mg IV weekly for four weeks. Now, Cohort 2 will test 600 mg IV once a week. The company said this is to see how the drug moves through the body, or PK. CEO Punit Dhillon said this was an “important” step for Skye, and said there had been no “neuropsychiatric adverse events” so far. Skye Bioscience, Inc.
Skye is a low-priced clinical biotech with no revenue from nimacimab. The trade here is tied to whether the company can prove that higher exposure levels for nimacimab, its CB1 inhibitor antibody for metabolic disease, are safe enough to move forward with a bigger mid-stage trial.
The stock outperformed Friday, moving against the tape for the sector. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which tracks the broader biotech group, slipped about 0.8%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust were both up, each gaining under 0.5% for the session.
Europe’s drug regulator gave the go-ahead to Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill, Reuters said Friday, setting up a likely launch for Europe’s first oral obesity drug. Skye’s position grows more uncertain as rivals move forward. Tricia Tan, professor of metabolic medicine and endocrinology at Imperial College London, told Reuters the pill’s fasting requirement shouldn’t be much trouble if doctors explain it to patients.
Eli Lilly set a new mark this week, too. Reuters said Thursday that patients on Lilly’s retatrutide lost over 28% of their body weight in 80 weeks during a main study. Kenneth Custer, who heads cardiometabolic health at Lilly, called the medicine’s surgery-like results a “pretty big deal.” Citi’s Geoff Meacham said the two-year number “most impresses us.” Reuters
Skye is taking another approach. It isn’t going up against Wegovy or Eli Lilly’s Zepbound directly right now. Instead, Skye is testing nimacimab as an add-on for people already on GLP-1 drugs, which work on gut-hormone pathways that affect appetite and blood sugar. Dhillon said this month that Skye is “focused on defining the dose and exposure” for the coming Phase 2b trial. The company said it’s still on track to deliver top-line data from the CBeyond Expansion Study in the fourth quarter. Skye Bioscience, Inc.
The calendar this week is short for holders, but a few items are on deck. The company says it plans to finish enrollment in Cohorts 1 and 2 for the second quarter. It also aims to wrap up feasibility work on the high-concentration nimacimab formulation, aimed at making dosing more practical if the program moves forward.
But the risk is clear. This was just a safety check, not a sign the drug causes weight loss. Skye said more drug could have different effects on safety or tolerability, and might not work better; as of March 31 it had $17.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, enough to last through the fourth quarter. That doesn’t include what a Phase 2b trial or more drug production would cost.
Tuesday’s session looks like it’s more about momentum than any single headline. Investors now see a clearer set of near-term catalysts than last week. The company remains early in testing, while Novo and Lilly keep upping the bar in the same space.
