Acadia Shares Fall After FDA Launches Safety Review on its Parkinson’s Disease Medication

Shares of biotech giant Acadia Pharmaceuticals were deep in the red in Wednesday trading after a company spokesperson and the FDA confirmed that the FDA has launched a safety review on its Parkinson’s Disease drug Nuplazid.

Shares fell over 20% after Wall Street learned the news.

It was not long ago that CNN had a report questioning the safety of the medication and revealed that a nonprofit had warned that 244 deaths involved patients who had been on the drug in less than a year after it launched.

Acadia at the time had said there was no reason to believe that Nuplazid was directly responsible for those deaths. The FDA also had said then that there was no reason to believe there were any safety issues not already covered by the label.

This looks like it has changed however and a spokesperson for the FDA has said that the drug is under review and that the “FDA is conducting an evaluation of available information about Nuplazid. This review has been going on for several weeks. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

Acadia’s Nuplazid treats hallucinations and delusions from psychosis that is associated with Parkinson’s disease

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