Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACAD) have exploded since the opening yesterday. In late trading today, ACADIA shares were trading at $14.51 per share on heavy volume.
ACADIA shares closed last Friday, March 16th at $6.69 per share and were up over 100 percent to $13.61 at the closing yesterday.
Before the market opened yesterday, the company announced positive top-line results from its Phase II schizophrenia co-therapy trial with ACP-103. ACP-103 is a small molecule drug candidate the company discovered and is developing as a co-therapy to be used together with other antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia. ACP-103 can be taken orally and is a novel, potent and selective 5-HT2A inverse agonist, meaning that it blocks the activity of the 5-HT2A receptor. The company also is developing ACP-103 for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease psychosis and sleep maintenance insomnia.
Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., chief executive of ACADIA commented on the Phase II results. “We are very excited about these top-line results, which demonstrate several key advantages of co-therapy with ACP-103. We believe that co-therapy with ACP-103 may provide important clinical advantages compared to current antipsychotic drug therapy.”
Following the release of the Phase II results, the company conducted a conference call, where Dr. Hacksell made the following comments. “We have clearly moved aggressively. We are going to fully analyze the data and then start to explore potential strategic alliances that will help us complete the Phase III study. We think the optimal scenario is to have a partner with Phase III.”
A partnership would definitely help with the finances needed to conduct the Phase III trial. Also, this would offset some of the risks to the company in case the Phase III trial was unsuccessful. Earlier this month the company announced its fourth quarter and year end results. The company’s cash position at December 31, 2006 was $83.3 million. The cash will aide the company in conducting the Phase III trial or finding a potential partnership.
Other fourth quarter results included a net loss of $12.5 million, or 42 cents per common share, for the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to a net loss of $10.2 million, or $0.44 per common share, for the fourth quarter of 2005. Revenues totaled $1.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to $2.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2005. This decrease was primarily due to lower revenues under ACADIA’s collaborations with Allergan, Inc.
Dr. Hacksell had this to say about ACADIA’s outlook for 2007. “We also look forward to other important milestones in 2007, including top-line results from our ACP-103 Phase II schizophrenia co-therapy trial, which we anticipate in March 2007, as well as the initiation of more advanced Phase II trials in our two other proprietary clinical programs.”
