Acadia Pharmaceuticals.

Shares of local drug maker Acadia Pharmaceuticals spiked last week as speculators anticipated positive results on unreleased data from a late-stage Parkinson's disease psychosis trial.

Shares of Acadia, traded under the symbol ACAD, closed at $4.40 July 27 on Nasdaq. Shares had been trading around $2 since early May.

Positive results could prove a boon to Acadia, which last year saw its schizophrenia drug fail in a mid-stage trial prompting the company to cut its staff in half. In May, Acadia signed a deal worth up to $395 million with Canadian company Biovail to help bring the drug to market.

Currently there is no therapy in the United States approved to treat Parkinson's disease psychosis, a debilitating disorder estimated to affect up to 40 percent of the 1.5 million people with Parkinson's. Most patients are treated through off-label use of antipsychotic drugs.

Results of the first of two trials are expected to be released within the next few months.

Send biotechnology news to Heather Chambers at [e-mail] or call 858-277-6897.