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DATE
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
Chief Executive Officer — Catherine Owen Adams
Chief Commercial Officer — Tom Garner
Executive Vice President, Research and Development — Elizabeth Thompson
Chief Financial Officer — Mark Schneider
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TAKEAWAYS
Total Revenue -- $278.6 million, representing 11% year-over-year growth.
NUPLAZID Net Sales -- $177.5 million, growing 12% year over year with 9% attributable to volume increases; this is the highest quarterly sales for the product to date.
Dayview (debut) Net Sales -- $101.1 million, up 11% year over year, entirely attributable to volume gains, with over 1,000 unique patients treated globally.
NUPLAZID Demand Drivers -- Referrals increased by 21% year over year, and new prescriptions grew 23% compared to the same period last year and 9% sequentially from Q2 2025.
Dayview Prescriber Reach -- 956 physicians have written at least one prescription; daily bottle shipments hit an all-time high this quarter.
Patient Persistency for Dayview -- Rates above 50% at twelve months and greater than 45% at eighteen months.
Field Force Expansion -- Plans to expand the NUPLAZID commercial team by 30% starting in 2026, equating to approximately 50 additional customer-facing representatives.
International Expansion -- Three distribution partners now shipping Dayview to patients in the EU, Israel, Middle East, and Latin America, with named patient supply programs actively enrolling in Germany, Italy, and France.
Updated Guidance for 2025 -- NUPLAZID sales guidance raised to $685 million to $695 million (previously $665 million to $690 million); Dayview guidance narrowed to $385 million to $400 million, now including international program contribution.
Cash Position -- Quarter-end cash of $847 million, up from $762 million at the end of Q2 2025.
Operating Expenses -- R&D expenses were $87.8 million (up from $66.6 million year prior), with full-year R&D expense outlook now $335 million to $345 million; SG&A expenses were $133.4 million, with fiscal guidance of $540 million to $555 million.
Pipeline Milestones -- Four Phase II or III trial readouts expected between now and 2027; next major readout (ACP-204 in Alzheimer's disease psychosis) anticipated mid-2026.
Clinical Program Progress -- Phase II initiated for ACP-204 in Lewy body dementia psychosis; Phase III initiated for trofinetide in Japan; Phase II for ACP-211 in major depressive disorder on track to begin in Q4 2025; first-in-human ACP-271 study expected Q1 2026.
SUMMARY
Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD +2.20%) delivered double-digit revenue and product sales growth, driven by record NUPLAZID and Dayview performance, with management increasing fiscal 2025 guidance for both brands and confirming strong cash generation. Strategic field force investments and international expansion are evident, including imminent launches in Europe and ongoing access programs across multiple regions. The company's pipeline progresses with four late-stage clinical trial readouts expected over the next two years, while operational discipline is maintained through targeted increases in R&D and SG&A guided ranges to support expansion and development milestones.
CEO Catherine Owen Adams explicitly stated the company is positioning for "over $1 billion in total revenues" for the full year, targeting continued revenue acceleration in 2026.
The NUPLAZID commercial strategy includes increased engagement with primary care and advanced practitioners, reflecting a shift beyond core neurologist targets.
Gross-to-net adjustments were 22% for Dayview and 25% for NUPLAZID in the quarter, indicating payer mix and allowances impact on net reported revenue.
Long-term care and community channels are both prioritized in the commercial expansion, but a higher percentage of incremental investment is directed toward community prescribers.
Elizabeth Thompson emphasized the lack of observed QT prolongation for ACP-204 to date, enabling higher dosing than with pimavanserin, which was previously limited by cardiac safety signals.
First patient access to Dayview via named patient supply programs outside the US was reported, with Germany leading European launch preparations and demand indicators from Italian and French prescribers.
Catherine Owen Adams confirmed that, following the discontinuation of the 101 program, the aspirational peak sales target for the pipeline is adjusted down to approximately $11 billion from $12 billion.
The LBD psychosis program is intentionally recruiting balanced cohorts of Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease dementia psychosis patients to inform future study designs and potential clinical differentiation.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
Gross-to-net adjustment: The reduction from gross product sales to the net amount received, accounting for discounts, rebates, chargebacks, Medicaid, and other allowances.
Named patient supply program: A legal pathway in certain countries, enabling clinicians to access investigational or unapproved therapies for individual patients outside of clinical trials or before commercial launch.
SAPS HD: Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms-Hallucinations and Delusions; a validated quantitative measure used in neuropsychiatric studies to assess symptom severity.
COE (Center of Excellence): Specialized medical centers recognized for expertise in a specific disease area, often participating in early adoption and clinical trial activities.
NBRx: New-to-brand prescription, referring to a first prescription of a product written for a patient by a healthcare provider.
PDP (Parkinson’s disease psychosis): A neuropsychiatric complication characterized by hallucinations and/or delusions in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
DSMB (Data and Safety Monitoring Board): An independent group monitoring patient safety and treatment efficacy data during a clinical trial.
CHMP: Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, the European Medicines Agency's body responsible for preparing opinions on questions concerning medicines for human use.
EC Regulatory Decision: European Commission decision on approval and marketing authorization for medicines in the European Union, following CHMP opinion.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Catherine Owen Adams: Thank you, Al. I'm pleased to report another strong quarter for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., with solid execution across our commercial portfolio, and continued momentum positions us well for a strong finish to 2025 as we lay the foundation for sustained growth into 2026 and beyond. We delivered total revenues of $278.6 million this quarter, up 11% from a year ago, reflecting the strength of our commercial portfolio. This performance underscores our ability to execute on multiple fronts while building for future growth. Starting with debut, we're very pleased with our progress. Following the expansion of our Salesforce earlier this year, I'm excited to share we achieved our largest sequential increase in referrals since launch.
This reflects the impact of our expanded team into the community setting, giving us confidence that we will continue to see better benefits from our broadened physician reach. During the third quarter, Zeppey generated $101.1 million in net sales, including contributions from both US sales and unnamed patient supply programs outside the US. We shipped the highest number of daily bottles ever in a single quarter. In total, we've shipped to over 1,000 unique patients globally, an exciting milestone for the company. Importantly, patient persistency remains stable, underscoring the sustained benefit Dayview delivers to patients and their families. Moving to NUPLAZID, we delivered an exceptional quarter with net sales of $177.5 million, marking our strongest sales quarter ever.
The momentum we are now driving gives us tremendous confidence in NUPLAZID's potential to unlock higher growth in the coming years. To ensure we capture this opportunity, we're making strategic investments in a meaningful field force expansion. The impact of this field team expansion combined with our direct-to-consumer campaigns creates a powerful combination that we believe will drive sustained growth and value maximization for NUPLAZID. We're looking to build on our commercial success by advancing our pipeline of novel product candidates, including the recent initiation of one phase two and one phase three trial. I'll now turn the call over to Tom to cover our commercial performance.
Tom Garner: Thank you, Catherine. I'll begin with debut, where we delivered another strong quarter of commercial execution. Daily sales were $101.1 million in Q3, representing our highest revenue and total volume in any quarter to date since launch. As Catherine noted, for the first time since approval, the number of unique patients receiving debut worldwide exceeded 1,000 in a single quarter, for an actual count of 1,006. This achievement reflects not only our progress in the US, but also from patients now starting to access Dayview through our named patient supply programs internationally. We're seeing strong early indicators from our field force expansion. Referrals are leading the way, with the highest quarter-over-quarter increase since debut's launch in 2023.
This momentum is translating into other key performance indicators, such as broadening prescriber reach, with 956 physicians having now written at least one prescription for debut. Our sales teams are now gaining real traction, with call volumes on our expanded target customer base supported by a similar increase in the number of educational programs we delivered, increasing over 20% versus Q2. Both of which were important levers in helping to educate prescribers on the benefits that Dayview has to offer. Importantly, adoption is broadening beyond centers of excellence or COEs, which could benefit from Dayview. This continues to represent a substantial growth opportunity for the brand.
Looking at age demographics, penetration among patients 11 is over 60%, but amongst older patients is significantly lower despite growing real-world evidence of debut's positive impact in this group. As we expand our reach beyond COEs, we see this segment as a significant growth driver for 2026 and beyond. Long-term persistency remains a key strength for Dayview, with another quarter of maturity in our data, persistency rates remain above 50% at twelve months, and greater than 45% at eighteen months. The strength of these metrics is important, as they further reinforce not only our confidence in Dayview's therapeutic value but also our outlook for sustainable long-term growth in the US. Internationally, our main patient supply programs continue to gain traction.
All three distribution partners are now actively shipping to patients in the EU, Israel, Middle East, and Latin America. Looking ahead, we remain confident in debut's growth outlook, driven by sustained demand generation supported by our strategic field force investments, strong persistency metrics, and expanding global access. These factors are critical because they not only validate the long-term value of Dayview for patients but also create a durable foundation for revenue growth. While we began to see the initial positive impact from the field force expansion in Q3, we expect meaningful benefits to accelerate through Q4 and into 2026.
In summary, debut is well-positioned to capture significant market opportunities in the US and internationally, reinforcing our commitment to delivering both patient impact and shareholder value. Now turning to NUPLAZID, where we delivered record performance with net sales of $170.5 million, representing 12% year-over-year growth driven by 9% volume growth. This reflects strong underlying demand for NUPLAZID among patients with disease psychosis or PDP, and the success of our commercial strategy coupled with the unwavering focus of our customer-facing teams on execution excellence. Referrals were a key driver of this momentum, increasing 21% year-over-year. This growth signals increasing awareness and confidence among healthcare providers in identifying and treating Parkinson's-related hallucinations and delusions earlier in the course of the disease.
New prescription volumes grew 23% in Q3, compared to the same quarter last year, representing the strongest year-over-year increase since 2019 and were up 9% sequentially. This inflection point demonstrates that our patient engagement campaigns and HCP outreach are translating into tangible prescribing behavior. It also underscores their belief in NUPLAZID's differentiated profile as the first and only FDA-approved therapy for PDP, with a well-established safety and efficacy record. Taken together, we believe these trends are an important leading indicator of future prescribing behavior and reinforce the strength of NUPLAZID in meeting a critical unmet medical need. As a reminder, the US PDP market represents an opportunity.
There are approximately one million Parkinson's patients, with an estimated 50% experiencing hallucinations and delusions at some point during the course of the disease. This translates into a substantial number of patients who benefit from NUPLAZID, underscoring the long runway for growth. Looking ahead, we see significant opportunity to build on this momentum. Our reach and frequency model is driving broader prescribing patterns across a wide range of HCPs, and our direct-to-consumer campaigns are raising awareness of PDP symptoms while highlighting NUPLAZID as the first and only approved treatment. To fully realize NUPLAZID's long-term potential, and capitalize on the brand's strong momentum, we are making strategic investments, including a 30% increase in our customer-facing team starting in 2026.
This expansion will allow us to reach newly activated physicians and improve pull-through. We are approaching this expansion thoughtfully to maximize near-term efficiency and long-term impact. Our various consumer initiatives are driving awareness and creating demand, with our expanded field force ensuring we efficiently convert that demand into prescriptions. In summary, the NUPLAZID fundamentals are strong. The market opportunity is substantial, and we have a proven strategy designed to capture it. With a differentiated product profile, accelerating demand indicators, and targeted investments in our commercial model, our ambition is not just to grow, but to become the standard of care for these patients. I'll now turn the call over to Liz.
Elizabeth Thompson: Thank you, Tom. I'm pleased to share some updates on our pipeline, where we continue to make encouraging progress across multiple programs that hold meaningful potential for the future. We've achieved some important milestones recently, including the successful initiation of our Phase II study for ACP-204 in Lewy body dementia psychosis and the initiation of our Phase III study of trofinetide in Japan. Looking ahead, our next expected milestone is the initiation of a Phase II study for ACP-211 in the fourth quarter of this year. We are developing ACP-211 in major depressive disorder, a common condition with significant unmet need. Then in Q1 2026, we expect to initiate our first in-human study of ACP-271 in healthy volunteers.
To our knowledge, this will be the first time a GPR-88 agonist enters the clinic, and it moves us along the path of development targeting the indications of targeted dyskinesia, Huntington's disease. We also have important projected study readouts coming. We anticipate reporting results from four Phase II or Phase III studies between now and 2027, underscoring both the breadth of our pipeline and the momentum behind our R&D strategy. Our next major readout is expected to be ACP-204 in Alzheimer's disease psychosis in mid-2026. We're particularly excited about this opportunity and what success could mean for the future trajectory of our company. The unmet need here is substantial.
The market opportunity is large, and we have built this program based on a substantial body of learning from pimavanserin at both the molecule and the trial level. Now switching gears to our international expansion efforts. First, I wanted to provide an update on the regulatory process in the EU for trofinetide. We've been informed by EMA that the earliest that a scientific advisory group could be held would be January. Given this, we now anticipate a CHMP opinion in the first quarter and the EC regulatory decision following the standard regulatory timeline. Meanwhile, in Japan, we've successfully initiated our phase three study representing a key step towards potentially bringing trofinetide to patients in this important market.
Now before I close, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and thank everyone involved in our COMPASS Prader Willi syndrome study and the ACT101 clinical development program. We are so grateful for the dedication and contributions of the patients, families, study site personnel, and physicians who participated. While the outcome wasn't what we hoped for, we hope that learnings from the trial will benefit the Prader Willi community and we're actively sharing our insights while we work to add the findings to the scientific literature. Our pipeline continues to represent a powerful engine for future growth as we look to advance therapies for underserved neurological disorders and rare disease communities.
We anticipate continued activity across our pipeline over the coming years with multiple programs progressing through key stages of development. As a reminder, across our eight disclosed programs, we anticipate initiating five additional Phase II or Phase III studies between now and 2026, demonstrating the depth and diversity of our development portfolio. And of course, we anticipate reporting four Phase II or Phase III study results in 2026 and 2027. And now I'll pass over to Mark for a review of our financials.
Mark Schneider: Thank you, Liz. Let me walk you through our third-quarter financial results. We delivered an excellent quarter that underscores the robustness of our commercial portfolio, which enables us to generate strong revenue and cash flows while continuing to invest strategically in growth opportunities. The third quarter was strong across the board with $278.6 million in total revenues, up 11% year over year. Debut achieved net sales of $101.1 million, up 11% year over year, all of which is attributable to volume growth. The gross-to-net adjustment for debut in the quarter was 22%. NUPLAZID delivered net sales of $177.5 million, up 12% year over year, with 9% of that growth attributable to volume. The gross-to-net adjustment for NUPLAZID was 25%.
Turning to operating expenses, R&D expenses were $87.8 million in the third quarter, up from $66.6 million in 2024, with the increase primarily attributable to higher clinical trial expenses from our ACP-204 LBDP, and ACP-101 programs and personnel expenses, partially offset by lower clinical spend from programs that have completed. SG&A expenses for the third quarter were $133.4 million, essentially flat with the prior year. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $847 million in cash, compared with $762 million at the end of the second quarter. Looking ahead to our full-year 2025 guidance, we're making targeted updates that reflect our strong performance and outlook.
For NUPLAZID, we're raising the lower end of our guidance range and increasing at the high end to $685 million to $695 million, up from $665 million to $690 million, reflecting the momentum we're seeing in the business. For Dayview, we're modifying to include contribution from our named patient supply programs and narrowing our prior guidance range. And now expect $385 million to $400 million compared with prior guidance of $380 million to $405 million for US only. Regarding operating expenses, we now expect R&D expenses of $335 million to $345 million compared with prior guidance of $330 million to $350 million.
For SG&A expenses, we now expect $540 million to $555 million compared with prior guidance of $535 million to $565 million. Our financial strength positions us exceptionally well to finish 2025 strong while making the investments necessary to drive sustained growth in 2026 and beyond. I'll now turn the call back to Catherine for closing remarks.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thank you, Mark. As we wrap up today's call, I wanted to reiterate our commitment to finishing 2025 hitting over $1 billion in total revenues, positioning ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. for continued growth in 2026 and beyond. We continue to be confident in the stability and growth trajectory driven by our new sales team for debut, reflected by the over 1,000 patients globally who are now on treatment. We're focused on unlocking NUPLAZID's full potential with our strategic field force expansion and proven patient engagement campaigns. And we now have the elements in place to further accelerate that growth. We are dedicated to advancing our robust pipeline as Liz has described.
And look forward to the four major readouts expected in 2026 and 2027. We also continue to focus on expanding our portfolio through business development, with our strong balance sheet providing flexibility to pursue partnerships and acquisitions. Ultimately, our mission drives everything we do, to turn scientific promise into meaningful innovation that makes the difference for underserved neurological and rare disease communities around the world. We are here to be their difference. I'm excited about what lies ahead for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. and I'm confident that our strategic investments and unwavering focus on our patients will deliver value for all of our stakeholders. And with that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by 11 on your touch-tone telephone. If your question has been answered or if you wish to withdraw your question, press star 11 again. Please limit yourself to one question. I'll repeat. Please limit yourself to one question. Press 11 to begin. And stand by for your first question. That first question comes from the line of Ritu Baral with TD Cowen. Your line is now open.
Ritu Baral: Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question this afternoon. I wanted to ask about the expanded NUPLAZID client-facing force. Catherine, how is that organized along the lines of focus on the newly activated prescribers? How should we think about it in terms of community versus long-term care facilities, which is a way that historically ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. has broken up the population for NUPLAZID? And, you know, which of those two has the most likelihood for continued growth as you see the market right now? Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Ritu. Appreciate the question. I'm gonna ask Tom to explain. He's been leading the charge for us. So, Tom?
Tom Garner: Good afternoon, Ritu. Thank you for the question. So as we think about the expansion, as we mentioned, we plan on executing in Q1 of next year. There's a few different factors I would say are playing into our thinking. So as you think about kind of the new writer base, if we look at kind of dynamics during Q3, we actually saw that in terms of our overall prescription volume, 26% actually came from new writers.
So I think this really talks to, you know, the way that our campaigns are working, the effectiveness of the field force, and it's been that kind of underlying dynamic that we've actually seen throughout the year, but actually accelerated in Q3 that's really given us the confidence to pull forward this investment in Q1 of next year. In relation to your question regarding community versus LTC, actually, we're seeing growth across all channels. We're seeing growth both in the community setting and in the LTC setting as well. And, you know, there are various channels that we see the new NUPLAZID scripts being pulled through. So in essence, you know, we're investing in both.
If you're looking at it from an absolute kind of percentage terms, we're actually investing slightly more on a percentage basis in the community. But at the same time, we are gonna be modestly expanding the LTC team just given the dynamics that we're seeing in that space as well. So long story short, we're investing in both. And at the same time, making sure that wherever we see a new NUPLAZID script, we're able to pull that through as optimally as possible.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Yigal Nochomovitz with Citi. Your line is now open.
Yigal Nochomovitz: Hi. Great. Thank you very much for taking the question. I have one on ACP-204. With the top-line data for Phase II coming out middle of next year, I'd be curious if you could comment briefly on what you would see as a clinically meaningful score on the SAPS HD score? And also, if you could just discuss, related to that, why that particular scale is a good one to use in this context. Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Yigal. Liz is leading that for us, so I'm gonna ask her to comment on the scales and the confidence around both of them.
Elizabeth Thompson: Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. So I'll go in reverse order, I suppose, and start with SAPS HD and why we landed there for Alzheimer's disease. So SAPS HD is actually an endpoint that we do have some experience with in our prior pimavanserin trials. It was involved in a pivotal study for PDP and it was also part of the relapse criterion in HARMONY. And so overall, we feel like we have a good understanding of that endpoint and its responsiveness. It is well set to measure the domains that we think are important in this patient population, and it's one of several endpoints that are in the literature that are supported as being relevant for this patient population.
We are measuring other things as well. So that is how we landed on this as the primary endpoint for the phase two portion of this study. In terms of how we're looking at this, I'll first note the powering piece, and then I'll talk a little bit about what we're looking for in this trial. In terms of how we size the trial, we actually did this on a size, so we're looking for roughly a moderate effect size, 0.4 effect size on SAPS HD.
But really what we're looking for in the phase two is to continue to understand how we progress towards our overall target product profile for 204, and that certainly has an efficacy component to it. But it also is about making sure that this is appropriate for use in this patient population. I think there are a number of important unmet needs here. Sparing cognition, avoiding daytime sleepiness or sedation, avoiding increasing risk of falls or fractures, avoidance of motor adverse effects. So there's a number of things we're gonna be looking for that we feel good about based on what we know about 204's profile.
But we're sort of holistically going to be looking at the profile of the drug in this trial.
Yigal Nochomovitz: Thanks so much, Liz. Great.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes to the line of Tessa Romero with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.
Tessa Romero: Hey, Catherine and team. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking our question. So for debut, you cited the highest quarter-over-quarter referral growth since launch this quarter. Double-clicking, how do you think new patient starts will look sequentially here over the next few quarters in light of the growth you are seeing? And the second one is just a quick housekeeping. When do you think you will finish enrollment in the Phase II trial in ADP? Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Tessa. I'll ask Tom to kick off about the referral dynamic we're seeing and we saw in the quarter, and then Liz can go for the second part.
Tom Garner: Yeah. Good afternoon. So thank you for the question. In terms of debut and referral dynamics, we're really encouraged by what we saw in Q3. We saw actually our highest rate of referrals since essentially launch. And if you look over the last twelve months, you know, we're really growing at a pretty decent rate now, which is very encouraging. In terms of pull-through, you know, just given standard dynamics that you would expect, it does take some time for a referral to then become an actual new-to-brand prescription.
Given the dynamics we saw during Q3 and the acceleration that we saw, we would anticipate that we'll continue to see growth in actual active patient counts through Q4 into 2026 and beyond.
Elizabeth Thompson: Liz, you wanna touch on that? Oh, great. Sorry. ACP-204. So, again, just reiterating the predicting midyear for top-line results here. We're really keeping a careful eye on enrollment for the right patient populations. I don't have an exact date of final enrollment here. But we anticipate that would be occurring sort of in the, you know, Q2-ish time frame to enable that midyear.
Tessa Romero: Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Tessa.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Brian Abrahams with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Brian Abrahams: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter. Another question on ACP-204. Can you talk a little bit about maybe the overall study conduct, how you're feeling about that? And are there any, I guess, any have there been any or will there be any looks at the blinded safety data that might inform the potential around having the QTc prolongation advantage or anything you could learn about things like risk of falls or some of the other aspects of the profile you talked about that could give you kind of an early read into that?
Elizabeth Thompson: Thanks. So, first overall, pleased with how the study is progressing thus far in terms of behavior of sites, investigators, the patient population that we're getting in there. We are laser-focused on making sure that we are getting the right patients in here, trying to not trying to, we are verifying them with biomarkers to make sure that this is a biologically confirmed Alzheimer's diagnosis, which we think is going to be important. From a blinded safety perspective, I'd say a couple of things. We do have a DSMB that looks after this on an ongoing basis. So we would get any indication of anything that is concerning from that perspective.
Thus far they've been supportive of continuing the study on as planned. And we do monitor on an ongoing basis from just sort of medical monitoring perspective. That said, I don't like to comment on data from ongoing blinded trials, you never really know how that's going to sort out across arms.
Brian Abrahams: Thanks.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from Ash Verma with UBS. Your line is now open.
Ash Verma: Hi. This is Leon on for Ash. Thank you for taking our question. Just wanted to get back to the risk-adjusted peak sales guide that you have provided at your R&D day. What is your latest thought on the $2.5 billion and $12 billion peak sales you provided on a risk-adjusted and nominal basis?
Catherine Owen Adams: So it's a little bit difficult to hear, but I think what you asked was how we're commenting on our peak potential that we talked about at R&D day and our expectations for the commercial portfolio within that same discussion. Let me talk about the overall aspirations for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. R&D Day, we shared that we aspire to achieve a $12 billion top line should all of our pipeline programs hit during the next two to three years. And as you know, unfortunately, our 101 program did not hit. And so we would take about an $800 million to a billion from that top line expectation.
So we would now, if we're speaking about the same thing, aspire to achieve the $11 billion token peak sales of our currently shared portfolio within that same group of compounds. In terms of our commercial aspirations, we shared the $1.5 to $2 billion for our commercial brands, NUPLAZID and Debut, and we are still absolutely committed to deliver on that and look forward next year to shed a little bit more clarity about both of those brands and our expectation for each of them so that you can understand where we see both of those in the next two, three years. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sam Beck with Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Sam Beck: Hey, team. It's Sam on for David Wong. Thanks for taking the question. Just a quick one from us. On NUPLAZID. If you could just provide a little bit more detail on any drivers you're seeing behind the higher average net selling price in the quarter, that'd be great. Thanks.
Mark Schneider: Yeah. I'll have to take the net selling price question around NUPLAZID. Yeah. I think at this point, you know, I think when you take all the puts and takes that go into pricing and the fact that, you know, the majority or the super majority of sales for NUPLAZID are for Medicare-based patients, kind of our year-over-year pricing, you know, is about the rate of inflation. That's been our expectation the whole year, except for the kind of one-time pricing benefit in the first quarter. And that's really what we saw in this quarter.
Sam Beck: Thank you, Sam. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Evan Seigerman with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Malcolm Hoffman: Hi. Malcolm Hoffman on for Evan. Thanks for taking our question. For debut with the CHMP opinion expected in the first quarter next year, how can you make sure scripts kinda get off the ground quickly after there could be a positive opinion there?
Catherine Owen Adams: I'll let Tom take that. He's leading our European team. We're all getting ready for that right now. So Tom, why don't you share our plan?
Tom Garner: Absolutely. So thank you for the question, Malcolm. As you'd imagine, there's a significant amount of energy being put behind our launch readiness planning in Europe. We're gonna be following kind of the standard track that you see for any approval in Europe, so we will be out the gate first in Germany. And I can tell you we're already gearing up to make sure that the team is ready to go there. So we already have a small group of key account managers. We have a handful of folks working on the medical side of the organization, and they've been very actively engaged already with prescribers, well, actually, with treaters from across the universe.
I mean, as you'd imagine, each of the European markets looks very different to the US. But, you know, we are making sure that we have the right infrastructure in place. The right focus in place. And I'm pleased to announce that actually in this quarter, we opened our compassionate use program in Germany and have already had a number of requests from German HCPs to enroll their RET patients in that program, which we think is a very nice kind of early indicator of enthusiasm to use the product and, obviously, we'll be making sure that experience is positive as we build out towards the launch.
Catherine Owen Adams: Wanna share a little bit more about the other countries who have also opened their programs on our call?
Tom Garner: Sure. So I am also pleased to announce that we have just opened programs in Italy and France. You know, again, we're pursuing wherever the regulatory and legal frameworks allow us to do so, you know, and early engagement programs. And as we mentioned on the call, you know, we also have our ongoing rest of world patient access programs as well, which again, encouragingly, we continue to see ad hoc requests in an unsolicited fashion coming through to the company.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Tom. That's the question.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sean Lyman with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.
Sean Lyman: Good afternoon, Catherine and team. Hope everyone's well. I have a question on the 30% increase investment to NUPLAZID. I guess, could you describe in percentage terms sort of how many new prescribers you might be reaching with that investment? And what's the headroom there before you get any saturation? And you can provide any guide on, you know, quantifying what the cost of that investment is, that'd be really useful.
Catherine Owen Adams: Yeah. I'm gonna let Tom talk about the increase and we'll go from that.
Tom Garner: Mhmm. So, you know, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, you know, we actually saw a very nice uptick during the quarter in terms of new prescriptions increasing through actual new writers, which is, you know, over 25% in the quarter. As we look ahead to kind of opportunities for growth and as we've really kind of done a deep dive on what that assessment looks like and where we see the opportunity, we see a ton of opportunity across a wider group of customers that we've been actually calling on to date. Just a reference, you know, historically speaking, we've generally called on neurologists. We've called on some movement disorder specialists and some psychiatrists.
But as we look at that 26% who are new to writing prescriptions for NUPLAZID, you know, a ton of those are now coming from primary care. They're often nurse practitioners or advanced practitioners that are now writing NUPLAZID. And in reality, we want to ensure that wherever that prescription is written, whether it be for a patient in the community or in the LTC setting, that we're really highlighting the benefit that NUPLAZID can offer. And just as a reminder in terms of headroom, you know, our share in terms of NBRx remains in the mid-20% range.
So if you just think about the upside of an opportunity that we have, given the size of the overall PDP population in the US, there is still significant headroom for growth, and that's what we're aiming to tap into in 2026.
Catherine Owen Adams: And I'll let Mark share a little bit more about how we plan to make that investment.
Mark Schneider: Yeah. I think in terms of people, it's about 50 customer-facing reps. I think you can certainly use standard benchmarks for what that cost is. We don't dive into the exact cost at this level of detail. But consider 50 reps, you know, plus some home office support and other things that go around that for the kind of overall investment. And, you know, we'll just share this kind of within, you know, our guidance for SG&A expenses next year.
Sean Lyman: Perfect. Thank you, everyone.
Catherine Owen Adams: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Tazeen Ahmad with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Tazeen Ahmad: Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just wanted to ask about why you think now is the right time to add to the field force for NUPLAZID and how are you deciding, like, what is the right size? Is this the final change or final increase that you think you need to make, or are there certain targets that you might be monitoring? And if so, can you kind of share a little bit about how you were thinking about needing more or fewer people as this launch matures? Thanks.
Catherine Owen Adams: Yeah. Tazeen, let me stop, and I'll let Tom dive into a little bit more of the details. You know, I think as I came on board last year, in September, the team had just started their DTC communications, both the unbranded and the branded, and we weren't sure how impactful that was going to be. We knew it probably would have some traction. But, again, we hadn't really been in the DTC space for a while since pre-COVID, and we wanted to understand the impact of that type of DTC investment.
We've now got a year under our belt, and we can see and you can see in the numbers real traction in terms of carers in that family being made aware of what the symptoms of disease can be beyond motor. And then those sort of awareness levels now translating into moving into the physician office, and physicians now also with our increasing real-world evidence, and data generation around NUPLAZID, being confident in prescribing it for the right patient to treat the hallucinations and delusions. So all of those metrics have come together. And with the important IP win that we had for NUPLAZID allowing us to continue to feel confident about our IP runway in the US.
We felt it was time to reassess the opportunity for NUPLAZID. Tom has been leading that reassessment, and from that, he has made the decision, and we have as a management team that it's right to invest now. And so maybe, Tom, you can talk a little bit more about some of those investment decisions.
Tom Garner: I mean, I think Catherine captured it really well. I mean, it's really been a story of momentum this year. So you guys. And Q3 in particular has really seen this kind of step change in how we're seeing referrals across the board.
And, you know, I think given that momentum, that gave us the opportunity and the lens to really have another look at what our customer model looked like, especially as you think about a world where we're seeing a number of new prescribers outside of our core kind of target base really beginning to latch on the benefit that NUPLAZID can offer and really engaging with this community in terms of where they're engaging with healthcare professionals, which as a reminder, you know, it can be quite challenging to get time with a neurologist or with a, you know, a PDP specialist.
And, you know, we think that with this expanded reach, we'll be able to actually help these patients really understand the benefit that they can afford and see with NUPLAZID beyond what we're doing today. So it's about really capitalizing on the momentum and then ensuring that we have the right structure in place for both today and tomorrow to your question. That we believe will put us in a really very strong position to maximize the opportunity ahead.
Catherine Owen Adams: And just a final thought, you know, we've been very focused at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. on ensuring that we are building a company that's built on a foundation of analytics and insights and data. And within the new expansion, it's been fueled by analytics data and insights, and we'll be using both that and AI on top of it to ensure that we really efficiently now find our patients and target them.
And so I think the combination of the new data being sort of driven by a focus on analytics technology, we have a new CIDO in place to help us drive that, and so I feel very confident that it will not only be an efficient focus but also a very effective one. For the question.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jack Allen with Baird. Great. Thank you so much for taking the questions, and congrats team on the progress made over the course of the quarter. I wanted to ask on the European opportunity for debut. I just wanted to engage with on how to get out of reimbursement.
Catherine Owen Adams: Jack, you just cut out at the end. I heard reimbursement and Europe. Could you maybe just repeat the question for us?
Jack Allen: Yeah. Sorry about that. I hope you have me better now. Yeah. I wanted to ask about reimbursement in Europe. I know there was a decision in Canada over the summer, and what your thoughts are and your early conversations are around payers in Europe ahead of a potential European launch for debut?
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Jack. So, yes, we are obviously in the middle of discussions and thinking right now around reimbursement in Europe. And you're right. We did have a disappointing decision in Canada. Tom, do you wanna share a little bit more about how we're thinking about reimbursement in terms of the sequential approach to that in Europe?
Tom Garner: Absolutely. So, you know, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, our plan would be that we launch first in Germany. And as a reminder, in Germany, as we launch, we have six months of free pricing. Which we will obviously think very carefully about what that looks like. Especially just given some of the other dynamics that we continue to monitor across the board such as MFN. But, you know, I think given the engagement that we've already started with payers and clinicians, we remain pretty confident actually that, you know, our European clinicians and the broader environment are seeing the benefit that debut can offer.
And I think as we continue to generate new real-world evidence in the US, you know, we're gonna ensure that we leverage that as we go into discussions with European payers and beyond as well. To really ensure that the value of Dayview is fully understood and realized across the markets where we're launching. So more to come, but I think we're excited about the opportunity in Europe and look forward to putting Dayview into the hands of many more patients who clearly deserve this treatment.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, Jack.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Paul Matteis with Stifel. Your line is now open.
Julian Hung: Hi there. This is Julian on for Paul. Thanks very much for taking our question. I guess just on ACP-204, I was wondering if you guys could clarify the exposure-response relationship sort of seen from pimavanserin and the work you've done on ACP-204. You often allude to, you know, your learnings that you've had from development as well, you know, from an execution perspective as well as from a scientific and biological perspective. And why you believe greater potency with ACP-204 will translate to greater clinical benefit? Thanks very much.
Elizabeth Thompson: Alright. I'll try and get all the things that were in there. So starting with the exposure-response. So both the Alzheimer's disease population as well as in Lewy body, we do have some information from pimavanserin suggesting that with higher levels of exposure you are able to get to higher levels of improvement on the clinical endpoints. And that the median exposure that we're able to achieve with pimavanserin leaves some of that efficacy on the table. So it's sort of midway through that exposure-response downward curve. And the reason for that, of course, is that unfortunately with pimavanserin, there was a tendency towards QT prolongation which limited the ability that we could dose range.
So we were not able to push the average patient up to the near-maximal efficacy that you could get with higher exposure levels. With ACP-204, we don't have that problem. So thus far our nonclinical and our clinical data are supportive of the fact that there is not a signal of QT prolongation here. And overall, our experience has been such that it is supportive of moving to our current clinical doses, which we're looking at in our Alzheimer's and Lewy Body programs. Where the lower dose is roughly equivalent to the exposure with the marketed dose of NUPLAZID, and the higher dose is roughly twice that.
So those are the pieces that give us some optimism that we have the possibility of exploring higher levels of efficacy. But even if we are not able to actually achieve higher levels of efficacy with the higher doses, we do think that there are some program learnings that we're able to apply here. Certainly, in both cases, we have programs that are focused specifically on the disease under study. The pimavanserin data in Lewy Body is promising, but it's a limited number of patients. And the Alzheimer's program had a single dedicated study and then a sub in an overall study.
So here we're going to be able to bring to bear much more robust data, evaluating both of these disease states. So those are the things that we take together to give us some real enthusiasm about ACP-204, which again we see as potentially having the possibility of really changing the trajectory of this company.
Julian Hung: Excellent. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Marc Goodman with Leerink Partners. Your line is now open.
Basma Radwan: Hi. Good afternoon. This is Basma on for Marc. We have a question on debut. You mentioned that the penetration is lower in the patient older than 11 years old. Do you believe that the slower penetration is driven by the higher discontinuation in this older age group? The reason why we're asking this question is we would expect that the improvement in communication skills and other effects may be minimal in the older patients and maybe that's a lack of effect to drive greater discontinuations. And also could you clarify whether the age of FAD patients in general seeking treatment is key to the younger age group or it's basically uniform across different ages? Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: I think there's some important opportunities there to clarify what the data actually says about debut efficacy across the age groups and to share a little bit more about what we're seeing in the field. So, Tom, do you wanna answer it? And if Liz, you've got any efficacy points to add on top, that would be good.
Tom Garner: Absolutely. So thank you for the question. So, I mean, going back to the original premise, you know, do we think that the reason that we are slightly lower penetrated in, you know, patients greater than 11 years and older is due to discontinuation. I don't think that's the case. I mean, essentially, what we have to remember is the vast majority of patients who have been kind of treated so far again, if we look at penetration by age are those in the two to four age bracket. You know, newly diagnosed patients, they're easy to identify. And they generally fall under the focus of the centers of excellence.
I think that's a group that we've been able to penetrate very early on. If you look at the last quarter, interestingly, sixty-five percent of our patients were actually older than the age of 11. So it's a group of patients that we believe that we can really begin to penetrate further still. And, you know, especially with our LOTUS real-world evidence generation, which as a reminder, has patients as old as 60 included in it.
You know, we do continue to see a group of well, we continue to see patients seeing benefit irrespective of age, and this has been part of the strategy as we've extended our reach beyond centers of excellence because many of these patients who are slightly older unfortunately, you know, they sit within the community setting. They may not be under the care of a COE. And they may not even be aware of Dayview. In fact, we just heard about a patient story yesterday for a patient in Kansas who is receiving debut for the first time but before they came into this center, had never even been made aware of debut.
So I think it really does talk to the fact that we have more work to be done both in terms of educating the community about what RET is and what to look for, and at the same time, ensuring that they understand the benefit that debut can offer to these patients irrespective of their age.
Elizabeth Thompson: Sure. I mean, so agree with everything that Tom said there. I think that going back even to the original clinical trials, there is supportive data suggesting that there's efficacy in patients above 11 as well as below 11, though it is a somewhat smaller proportion of our overall patient population. But exactly as Tom said, we've also been tracking these patients in LOTUS as well and see evidence of improvement in those patients as well. So I think that it is an increasing body of evidence that supports the fact that Dayview does bring benefit to patients in line with the indication, is not restricted in terms of age and
Catherine Owen Adams: Yeah. I think that's the key. We see debut efficacy across age ranges. And, we wanna ensure that neurologists and treating physicians are educated about the data and don't have preconceived notions about specific efficacy and specific age groups. That's a big focus of Tom and Alison and the team as we move into next year to really ensure that data is shared specifically to encourage the physicians that aren't so well-versed in Rett to really look at the data and, think about it for all patients, not just younger patients. So with that, it's a good question. Take the next one. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ami Fadia with Needham and Company.
Puna: Hi. This is Puna on for Ami. Thank you for taking our questions. Congratulations on the quarter. My first question is, received some IRA impact feedback coming for therapies such as AUSTEDO. Is there any read-through for NUPLAZID based on this? Is this more positive than you expected? And my second question is how is ACT-211 differentiated from SPRAVATO and the emerging psychedelic class in depression? Thank you.
Catherine Owen Adams: I'm gonna ask Mark to answer the IRA question first, and then we'll ask Liz to talk about the differentiation of ACP-211.
Mark Schneider: I think on the IRA, there's not a great comp yet for NUPLAZID as NUPLAZID is the first and only approved therapy for its indication, and so it doesn't have competition with other branded agents. As well as we haven't seen a comp like that go through the IRA negotiation. So simply speaking, I think we'll see how this evolves as NUPLAZID goes through negotiations. Or others in a more comparable situation, and that may or may not have read-through for what a NUPLAZID negotiation may look like.
Elizabeth Thompson: As far as switching gears, quite a lot to ACP-211. As far as ACP-211 is concerned. So we've designed ACP-211 as an oral therapy. What we're hoping for here is the potential for ketamine-like efficacy or SPRAVATO-like with a very different patient experience in terms of the degree of required in-office monitoring. And the data that we have so far supports that. Both in terms of animal models that suggest efficacy as well as lacking sedative impacts or dissociation. And in healthy volunteers in our phase one study, we have demonstrated the ability to reach high doses with no sedation and minimal dissociation.
We think if this reads through, in our upcoming clinical trials, we are looking to start this phase two and ACP-211 before the end of this year. We designed this, of course, to look at efficacy, but also very importantly, to rule out unacceptable levels of sedation and dissociation. So we think that there is a potential for a really appealing product here.
Puna: Thanks so much.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Salveen Richter with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.
Salveen Richter: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. On the LBD psychosis study, can you just help us understand the rationale for enrichment of the Phase two with the additional patient groups, including LBDP and the PDP population instead of just focused on Lewy Body dementia psychosis, specifically?
Elizabeth Thompson: So Lewy body dementia psychosis is sort of an umbrella term that actually encapsulates dementia with Lewy bodies as well as Parkinson's disease dementia psychosis. And so what we're looking to do in our Lewy body program is actually ensure that we're looking at roughly equivalent numbers of both of those two patient populations to understand any similarities and differences in terms of how they behave. This will help us in terms of designing what future studies could look like.
When we look at the population in the pimavanserin data set that is specifically that Lewy body dementia psychosis, the numbers are relatively small, but it is very promising data, and that's part of what had us move this program forward, part of what makes us enthused about it.
Salveen Richter: Thanks, Salveen. Thank you.
Operator: Your last question comes from the line of Sumant Kulkarni with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.
Sumant Kulkarni: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our question. You're investing more on NUPLAZID, and there have been some questions already about that, but we're finally seeing some excitement in the Parkinson's market and AbbVie recently announced a Salesforce expansion on the strength they're seeing for YLEV and the potential approval for tevapadone. So how do you think this additional focus on the Parkinson's market from a relatively large player might influence the market or diagnosis rates for psychosis associated with Parkinson's?
Catherine Owen Adams: So I'll start and then maybe get a perspective from Tom. I think so let's just start by reminding everybody that NUPLAZID is the only branded product approved for Parkinson's through psychosis. But as we see more activity in the overall Parkinson's market, I think what history would tell us is that once more once larger companies are in the market, talking about Parkinson's disease more fulsomely with more people, that does tend to be an increase in terms of awareness of different elements of the disease. And as Tom has already alluded to, fifty percent of patients suffer from psychosis or suffer from the hallucinations and delusions of Parkinson's at some point during their journey.
And so it wouldn't be unsurprising to sort of see that rate increase. What we do know right now is that there's a relatively low level of awareness amongst families and caregivers of those symptoms. Which is why we've been putting effort behind the unbranded campaign. And that would still have to be true because those sort of non-motor related symptoms generally go undiscussed and unfocused on by the physicians and their families. And what we have understood is that we need to continue to talk about them to ensure that those questions are raised.
As we continue to educate physicians with our expansion, some I think we've probably hope to see that the physicians are starting to learn more about it themselves. So I don't think without us, it's gonna be a sort of a natural place for them to go other companies. What would you say on that?
Tom Garner: No. I mean, one thing I would say, I mean, I think it's well recognized that Parkinson's in general is one of the, you know, the fastest-growing neurological disease types in the United States. You know, as a reminder, there's estimated to be about a million patients with Parkinson's in the US. And as we kind of then take a step down into those patients who are actually diagnosed with hallucinations and delusions, it's somewhere between four and fifty percent of that population at any given time. By our estimate, there's about a hundred and thirty thousand of those patients who are actually diagnosed negative with antipsychotic pardon me, during the course of the disease.
That's not to say, you know, there's more work to be done here because I think if you look at most patients as they go through their Parkinson's journey, to begin with, they are fully focused on, you know, the movement elements of the disease. And, unfortunately, not everybody is educated on hallucinations and delusions, that can commonly occur. And I think one of the key calls to action that we're trying to drive at the moment is that if a patient even if early in their disease course, is experiencing hallucinations or delusions, that is a trigger point to start treatment.
That's a trigger point to make sure that they're engaging with an HCP, whether it be a neuro or it be their primary care physician to make sure that they're having that dialogue to ensure that, you know, appropriate action can be taken. And we believe that's where honestly, NUPLAZID can play a really critical role just given its profile, given its safety profile, and given the growing body of evidence that Catherine mentioned earlier on. So I think taken together, you know, clearly more upside, and I think that's one of the reasons that we have decided that now is the time to really up-invest in our customer-facing approach to NUPLAZID as we look forward.
Catherine Owen Adams: Now is the time. It's a great way, I think, to end that question. Thanks very much.
Operator: Since there are no further questions, I'll pass it along to Mrs. Owen Adams to proceed to closing remarks.
Catherine Owen Adams: Thanks, everybody, for your questions. We're really excited about what lies ahead for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., and we look forward to our next call.
Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference call. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect.