Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners and Acadia Pharmaceuticals Launch 2nd Drug Discovery Project in Neuroscience

2023.12.25

December 25, 2023 – Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. (HQ: Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan; hereinafter referred to as “Axcelead DDP”) announces the launch of a second drug discovery project with Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (HQ: San Diego, CA, USA; hereinafter referred to as “Acadia”) to generate innovative medicines within the field of neuroscience.

Acadia and Axcelead DDP initiated the second project following the first project that commenced in October 2022, the objective of which was to identify drug candidate compounds also in specific therapeutic indications within neuroscience. In the second project, the parties will proceed with research programs to discover and advance candidate compounds for clinical development. Axcelead DDP will lead research activities to generate high-quality, target-selective candidate compounds by leveraging its integrated drug discovery platform, deep knowledge and extensive experience in drug discovery research. Acadia will leverage its deep expertise in central nervous system disorders to execute on the clinical development and potential commercialization of successful compounds. Axcelead DDP will receive upfront fees, research funding and development milestone fees as with the first drug discovery project.

“We are delighted to contribute to the second drug discovery project with Acadia. We believe that Acadia highly recognizes the progress of our first drug discovery project in the neuroscience area, which started in October 2022 as well as our drug discovery capabilities. This project successfully passed early milestones as planned and is expected to achieve drug candidate selection in the near future,” said Nobuhiko Yamada, chief executive officer of Axcelead DDP. “We will continue to collaborate with Acadia to potentially help expand their drug pipeline with the aim of delivering innovative medicines to patients suffering from neuropsychiatric and rare diseases.”

Axcelead DDP is Japan’s first drug discovery solution provider established in July 2017 by taking over the drug discovery platform from Takeda Pharmaceutical. Screening, Medicinal chemistry, Pharmacology / Biology, DMPK, and Safety research functions are integrated into one center with a state-of-the-art research base and original compound library. This enables Axcelead to create drug candidates by utilizing the vast amount of past drug discovery research data. By leveraging these strengths, we provide solutions to various challenges faced in the process from exploratory research to clinical in drug discovery. For more information, please visit https://www.axcelead.com/en/

About Acadia Pharmaceuticals
Acadia is advancing breakthroughs in neuroscience to elevate life. For 30 years Acadia has been working at the forefront of healthcare to bring vital solutions to people who need them most. Acadia developed and commercialized the first and only approved therapies for hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis and for the treatment of Rett syndrome. Acadia’s clinical-stage development efforts are focused on treating the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, Prader-Willi syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease psychosis and neuropsychiatric symptoms in central nervous system disorders. For more information, visit Acadia at www.acadia.com.