Meiji Seika Granted Rights to Develop and Commercialize Products in Asian Territory; ACADIA Retains All Rights in the Rest of the World SAN DIEGO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Mar. 25, 2009—ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACAD) and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd.(TSE:2202) today announced that they have established a collaboration todevelop and commercialize a novel class of pro-cognitive drugs to treatpatients with schizophrenia and related disorders in Japan and severalother Asian countries. The collaboration will focus on developing aproduct candidate, which was discovered by ACADIA and has been nominatedby the parties for IND-track development.
“We are very pleased to be working with ACADIA having strong expertisewithin CNS drug discovery. We trust this collaboration will boost ourportfolio of psychiatric products, a strategic therapeutic focus areafor Meiji Seika,” said Osamu Makabe, Ph.D., Senior Vice President,Research and Development of Meiji Seika. “The exciting profile of thisclass of drugs may offer a promising new approach to treatingschizophrenia and related disorders, including the potential to addresscognitive disturbances frequently experienced by these patients, whichrepresents an area of major unmet medical need.”
“We are delighted to establish this innovative partnership with MeijiSeika,” said Uli Hacksell, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ACADIA.“With its strong development and commercial capabilities and focus onCNS disorders, we believe Meiji Seika is an excellent partner to helpadvance the development of this exciting program and to commercialize inJapan and other Asian markets.”
The collaboration is based on a novel class of compounds that combinemuscarinic m1 agonism with dopamine and serotonin receptor antagonism.These compounds have demonstrated a unique combination of pro-cognitiveand antipsychotic activity in preclinical behavioral models. Thecompanies plan to initiate IND-enabling studies and co-develop a productcandidate through completion of proof-of-concept clinical studies. MeijiSeika has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the product inJapan and several other Asian countries. ACADIA retains the right todevelop and commercialize the product in the rest of the world,including the U.S. and Europe. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement,ACADIA is eligible to receive from Meiji Seika up to $25 million inaggregate payments, including upfront fees, and development andregulatory milestone payments, as well as royalties on product sales inthe Asian territory, if the product is commercialized successfully.Meiji Seika is responsible for the initial development expenses up to aspecified level and the companies will share the remaining expensesthrough clinical proof-of-concept. Meiji Seika is responsible for allcosts associated with the development, manufacturing andcommercialization of the product in the Asian territory afterproof-of-concept. Meiji Seika is eligible to share a portion of anyproduct-related revenues received by ACADIA in the rest of the world.
About Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating mental illness characterized bydisturbances in thinking, emotional reaction, and behavior.Approximately one percent of the population develops schizophreniaduring their lifetime and more than two million people in the UnitedStates suffer from this disease. Disturbances associated withschizophrenia may include positive symptoms, such as hallucinations anddelusions, and a range of negative symptoms, including loss of interestand emotional withdrawal, as well as cognitive disturbances. It isbelieved that cognitive disturbances prevent patients with schizophreniafrom readjusting to society. As a result, patients with schizophreniaare normally required to be under medical care for their entire lives.Currently prescribed treatments do not effectively address or mayexacerbate cognitive disturbances associated with schizophrenia.
About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
ACADIA is a biopharmaceutical company utilizing innovative technology tofuel drug discovery and clinical development of novel treatments forcentral nervous system disorders. ACADIA’s most advanced productcandidates include pimavanserin in Phase III for Parkinson’s diseasepsychosis, a product candidate in Phase II for chronic pain and aproduct candidate in Phase I for glaucoma, both in collaboration withAllergan, as well as additional compounds in IND-track development. Allof the product candidates in ACADIA’s pipeline emanate from discoveriesmade using its proprietary drug discovery platform. ACADIA maintains awebsite at www.acadia-pharm.comto which ACADIA regularly posts copies of its press releases as well asadditional information and through which interested parties cansubscribe to receive email alerts.
About Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd.
Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. is located in Tokyo, Japan and is operating itsbusiness in the fields of confectionaries and pharmaceuticals. In thepharmaceutical division, Meiji Seika is dedicated to the discovery,development and commercialization of a wide variety of pharmaceuticalproducts throughout Japan and some countries outside of Japan, as well.The main areas of its interest are infectious disease and centralnervous system disorders. For more information on Meiji Seika, pleasevisit the company’s website at www.meiji.co.jp.
ACADIA Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical innature are forward-looking statements. These statements include but arenot limited to statements related to the benefits to be derived from theclass of compounds subject to the collaboration, including efficacy forvarious indications and pro-cognitive benefits, the development andclinical research plans for this class of compounds, and future paymentsthat may be made pursuant to the collaboration agreement. Thesestatements are only predictions based on current information andexpectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actualevents or results may differ materially from those projected in any ofsuch statements due to various factors, including the risks anduncertainties inherent in drug discovery, development andcommercialization, and collaborations with others, and the fact thatpast results may not be indicative of future findings. For a discussionof these and other factors, please refer to ACADIA’s annual report onForm 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 as well as othersubsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You arecautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-lookingstatements, which speak only as of the date hereof. This caution is madeunder the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities LitigationReform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are qualified intheir entirety by this cautionary statement and ACADIA undertakes noobligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events orcircumstances after the date hereof.
Source: ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Lisa Barthelemy, Director, InvestorRelations
Thomas H. Aasen, Vice President and Chief FinancialOfficer
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