Published on 12 Mar 2024 on Zacks via Yahoo Finance

Acadia (ACAD) Down as Schizophrenia Study on Nuplazid Fails

Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. ACAD shares lost 15% in the after-market hours on Mar 11, after the company announced the failure of its late-stage study evaluating pimavanserin for the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

In the phase III ADVANCE-2 study, treatment with pimavanserin did not achieve statistical significance in demonstrating improvement over placebo on the study’s primary endpoint of change from baseline to week 26 on the Negative Symptom Assessment-16 (NSA-16) total score. The NSA-16 scale is a widely used metric to measure change in the wide range of predominant negative symptoms that patients experience.

Based on such disappointing results, Acadia has decided not to pursue any further clinical studies with pimavanserin. However, the company will continue to analyze data from the schizophrenia study of pimavanserin.