Acadia Pharmaceuticals Takes a Nose Dive After Schizophrenia Drug Fails

Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares were on a decline in after-hours trading on Monday as Wall Street learned that the company’s supplemental treatment for schizophrenia failed to meet key benchmarks in a late phase trial.

The company’s President Serge Stankovic, M.D., M.S.P.H., stated that Pimavanserin, “did not a achieve a statistically significant reduction” in symptoms in the phase 3 trial conducted with 396 patients.

“I want to thank all the patients, their families, and the investigators who participated in our ENHANCE study. Unfortunately, we did not achieve a statistically significant reduction in the PANSS total score in this study,” said Stankovic.

He added, “We are pleased with the improvement in negative symptoms observed in this study. We look forward to completing our ongoing ADVANCE trial evaluating pimavanserin in schizophrenia patients with predominant negative symptoms.”

According to the company’s press release, “Pimavanserin was well-tolerated with similar rates of adverse events between adjunctive pimavanserin (40.4%) and adjunctive placebo (36.9%). Adverse events reported in at least 5% of patients in the pimavanserin group included headache, somnolence, and insomnia.”

“Additionally, the adjunctive use of pimavanserin did not result in clinically significant differences in vital signs, weight, metabolic syndrome, and extrapyramidal symptoms compared to adjunctive placebo.

Approximately 88% of pimavanserin and 96% of placebo patients completed the study. 1% of patients in each arm reported serious adverse events. Discontinuations due to adverse events were low, 2.5% for pimavanserin and 0% for placebo.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) and have not been compensated for this article.