What
Shares of Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD -0.90%) closed up 11% on Friday after announcing solid enough first-quarter revenue from its Parkinson's disease drug Nuplazid before the bell this morning.
Of course, with the share price at almost half of where it started the year at thanks to a negative CNN report in April, it shouldn't have taken much to get investors excited.
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So what
Nuplazid revenue was up 12% quarter over quarter, which is certainly some solid growth. But it's working off a low base, so the growth only raised quarterly sales to $48.9 million, a far cry from a blockbuster.
Investors are likely also cheering management's guidance in which it reiterated expectations for Nuplazid sales between $255 million and $270 million this year. For the second quarter, the goal is for sales of $57 million to $61 million, which would be about 20% quarter-over-quarter growth at the midpoint. More importantly, it still leaves additional growth for the second half of the year to reach the annual goal.
Now what
In addition to growing sales, investors can look forward to results from a phase 2 trial testing Nuplazid in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), which is due out in the second half of this year. As a much larger potential market, MDD could give Acadia a major revenue boost, although sales for that indication would still be years away since the company would still need to run a phase 3 confirmatory program.
