March 10, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
News that central nervous system drugmaker Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. might be close to a buyout pushed the company’s stock to its highest point ever in late trading Tuesday, as rumors caught fire with biotech investors that a canceled investor meeting meant Acadia is in deal talks.
Lisa Barthelemy, director of investor relations and a spokeswoman for Acadia, didn’t respond to emails or voicemails seeking comment.
Still, that speculation pushed Acadia’s stock up 18 percent to close at $45.88 in New York trading Tuesday, its highest historical point since it began trading in 2004.
Acadia has enjoyed a hefty 38 percent boost over the last 12 months on the strength of a deal it has with Allergan Inc. to develop glaucoma and pain drugs, but Tuesday’s spike was due almost solely to news that Acadia canceled an appearance at Tuesday conference hosted by Roth Capital Partners.
Coming just a week after it canceled a speaking engagement at a March 3 conference hosted by Cowen & Co., “the last minute” no-show has watchers buzzing, Elemer Piros, an analyst with Roth based in New York, told Bloomberg in an email.
Acadia’s Monday market capitalization was $3.9 billion.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Vertex Pharmaceuticals made news last week when it terminated leases on three properties in Cambridge, Mass, that freed up 313,000 square feet of space in the Genetown area. The company has spent a significant part of 2014 consolidating its operations on the South Boston waterfront, leasing 291,000 square feet of office space at West Kendall Street in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. So we wanted to ask the BioSpace community: Is Boston going to be getting more biotech leases anytime soon, or fewer tenants?
