Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in

Sorrento Valley Sorrento Valley is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located about 17 mi (27 km) north of Downtown San Diego and its main airport, Lindbergh Field. It is roughly bounded by Interstate 5 and Interstate 805, Camino Santa Fe to ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Product development

Nuplazid, a drug developed by Acadia in the late 1990s, "was designed to stimulate a subset of the brain’s serotonin receptors, or the proteins that govern memory, cognition and learning." On April 29, 2016, the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

approved Acadia's drug, Nuplazid, for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

psychosis. Nuplazid is the trade name for Acadia's proprietary molecule,

pimavanserin Pimavanserin (ACP-103; BVF-036), sold under the brand name Nuplazid, is an atypical antipsychotic which is approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease psychosis and is also being studied for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, ...

, a selective serotonin inverse agonist preferentially targeting 5-HT2a receptors. Acadia had partnered with

Biovail Biovail Corporation was a Canadian Pharmacology, pharmaceutical company (law), company, operating internationally in all aspects of pharmaceutical products. Its major production facility was located in Steinbach, Manitoba. It merged with Valeant ...

in the late-stage clinical testing of the drug, which showed trial failures as of 2009. Acadia is running multiple Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials with pimavanserin in several central nervous system conditions:

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

-related psychosis,

major depressive disorder Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introdu ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

inadequate response, and schizophrenia negative symptoms. , Acadia was among several companies that licensed compounds from

Genzyme Genzyme was an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since its acquisition in 2011, Genzyme (also known as Genzyme Transgenics Corp or GTC Biotherapeutics) has been a fully owned subsidiary of Sanofi. In 2010, Genzyme ...

's small-molecule compound library. Acadia is currently awaiting phase-3 trial results for trofenitide, which are due in Q4 of 2021.

History

Acadia started in 1993 as Receptor Technologies, based in

Winooski, Vermont Winooski is a city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Located on the Winooski River, as of the 2020 U.S. census the municipal population was 7,997. The city is the most densely populated municipality in northern New England, an area co ...

. ---
Biotech
, continuation of article, p. D2. In 1997, the company relocated all operations and management from Vermont to

as a strategic move to garner partnerships with other biotechnology companies. However, the company also had an office in Denmark, in which it received a crucial part of its early investments from BankInvest, under managing director Florian Schönharting, Kommunernes Pensionsforsikring A/S and Dansk Kapitalanlæg Aktieselskab as well as private investor Lars Christiansen. At the time, the company had fifty employees, fourteen of whom were in the Denmark office. The focus of the company in its early years was on genetic screens for receptors, aiming to accelerate early stage drug discovery. The company planned to conduct an

Initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) consisting of 31.6% of the company in 2001, with the intention of raising and listing on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

exchange under the symbol ACAD. At the time, Acadia and

Allergan Allergan plc is an American, Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops, manufactures and markets brand name drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system, and gastroenterology. ...

were collaborating on development of a treatment for glaucoma, and Allergan would retain a 6.3% ownership stake in Acadia after the IPO. However, the company's IPO, which ultimately took place in May 2004, did not fare as well as expected and netted only . At the time, the company had five drugs in development and was running two in human trials. The company had a subsequent round of stock offering in May 2007 which raised . In September 2020, Acadia Pharmaceuticals acquired clinical-stage biotechnology company CerSci Therapeutics.

Corporate governance

In 2001, the company's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

at the time, Leonard R. Borrmann, left Acadia to lead Maret Pharmaceuticals. He was succeeded by Uli Hacksell, who left Acadia to lead Cerecor at the beginning of 2016.

References

{{Authority control Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Pharmaceutical companies established in 1993 1993 establishments in California Health care companies based in California Companies based in San Diego Companies listed on the Nasdaq