Acadia Pharma Q3 Results Miss View; Pushes Back Nuplazid NDA Submission

(RTTNews) - Biopharmaceutical company Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACAD) on Monday reported a loss for the third quarter that widened from last year on sharply lower revenues and higher expenses. Loss per share for the quarter was wider than analysts' expectations and revenue missed their estimates.

Acadia Pharma's third-quarter net loss was $24.79 million or $0.25 per share, wider than net loss of $10.70 million or $0.12 per share in the prior-year quarter.

On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report loss of $0.22 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The latest quarter's results include non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $3.9 million, up from $1.9 million in the year-ago period.

Collaborative revenue for the quarter fell 94 percent to $15 thousand from $240 thousand in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $160 thousand for the quarter.

Research and development expenses more than doubled from the year-ago period to $16.95 million. The increase in expenses was primarily due to an increase of $8.4 million in external service costs, including increased development costs incurred in the company's Phase III program for Nuplazid.

Total operating expenses more than doubled from the previous-year quarter to $25.01 million.

Acadia said it now plans to submit its New Drug Application or NDA for Nuplazid or primavanserin for Parkinson's disease psychosis in the first quarter of 2015.

Acadia has reported positive Phase III trial results with Nuplazid, which has the potential to be the first drug approved in the U.S. for psychosis associated with Parkinson's disease.

The company, which had previously planned to submit the NDA near the end of 2014, said that the decision to move back the planned submission is based on additional time required to complete preparations needed to support the FDA review of Nuplazid.

ACAD closed Monday's trading at $28.21, up $0.52 or 1.88 percent on a volume of 1.12 million shares. However, in after-hours, the stock declined $0.76 or 2.69 percent to $27.45.