Singapore, Mar 26, 2009: Acadia Pharmaceuticals and Japan's Meiji Seika Kaisha have established a collaboration to develop and commercialize a novel class of pro-cognitive drugs. These drugs will be to treat patients with schizophrenia and related disorders in Japan and several other Asian countries. The collaboration will focus on developing a product candidate, which was discovered by Acadia and has been nominated by the parties for IND-track development.

"We are very pleased to be working with Acadia having strong expertise within CNS drug discovery. We trust this collaboration will boost our portfolio of psychiatric products, a strategic therapeutic focus area for Meiji Seika," said Dr Osamu Makabe, Senior Vice President (R&D), Meiji Seika. "The exciting profile of this class of drugs may offer a promising new approach to treating schizophrenia and related disorders, including the potential to address cognitive disturbances frequently experienced by these patients, which represents an area of major unmet medical need."

The collaboration is based on a novel class of compounds that combine muscarinic agonism with dopamine and serotonin receptor antagonism. These compounds have demonstrated a unique combination of pro-cognitive and antipsychotic activity in preclinical behavioral models. The companies plan to initiate IND-enabling studies and co-develop a product candidate through completion of proof-of-concept clinical studies. Meiji Seika has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the product in Japan and several other Asian countries. Acadia retains the right to develop and commercialize the product in the rest of the world, including the US and Europe.

"We are delighted to establish this innovative partnership with Meiji Seika," said Dr Uli Hacksell, CEO, Acadia. "With its strong development and commercial capabilities and focus on CNS disorders, we believe Meiji Seika is an excellent partner to help advance the development of this exciting program and to commercialize in Japan and other Asian markets."

Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Acadia is eligible to receive from Meiji Seika up to $25 million in aggregate payments, including upfront fees, and development and regulatory milestone payments, as well as royalties on product sales in the Asian territory, if the product is commercialized successfully. Meiji Seika is responsible for the initial development expenses up to a specified level and the companies will share the remaining expenses through clinical proof-of-concept. Meiji Seika is responsible for all costs associated with the development, manufacturing and commercialization of the product in the Asian territory after proof-of-concept. Meiji Seika is eligible to share a portion of any product-related revenues received by Acadia in the rest of the world.