AbbVie shares tumble after schizophrenia drug disappoints

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AbbVie shares tumbled more than 10 per cent on Monday, wiping more than $30bn from the drugmaker’s market value, after the company said a schizophrenia drug had disappointed in clinical trials.

The Chicago-based drugmaker said its schizophrenia drug Emraclidine failed to show “a statistically significant reduction” in psychotic symptoms, compared with a group who took a placebo. The phase-two trial has tested the drug on 752 patients, AbbVie added.

The results are a significant blow to AbbVie, which last year spent $8.7bn buying biotech Cerevel Therapeutics to secure control of Emraclidine. 

Roopal Thakkar, Abbvie’s chief scientific officer, said the company was “disappointed with the results”, adding that it would continue to analyse the data to determine its next steps.

Shares in AbbVie were down 11 per cent in early trading in New York, cutting the group’s market capitalisation to about $315bn.

This is a developing story