Biotech Acadia stock getting wild ride

Stock of San Diego-based Acadia Pharmaceuticals enjoyed a bounceback today (Friday, April 27), riding up 7.67 percent to $16.28. On Wednesday, it had taken a 22 percent plunge after a report that the Food and Drug Administration will re-examine its only drug, Nuplazid, that treats hallucinations and delusions from psychoses tied to Parkinson’s disease.

CNN reported on April 25 that the previous week, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb had told Congress that the agency would “take another look” at Nuplazid. That report generated the selloff. The drug has been scrutinized for reports of people dying after taking it

The company has a well-known TV ad discussing “secret visitors”— the hallucinations that half of Parkinson’s sufferers are said to suffer. Within the last 52 weeks, the stock has been as highs $41.20. It is now trading near its 52-week low of $14.51.