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ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACAD)

Q4 2024 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 26, 2025

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Conference Call. My name is Shannon, and I will be your coordinator for today. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Al Kildani, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at ACADIA. Please proceed.

Al Kildani

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss ACADIA's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings. Joining me on the call today from ACADIA are Catherine Owen Adams, our Chief Executive Officer, who will provide some opening remarks, followed by Tom Garner, our Chief Commercial Officer, who will discuss our strong commercial brand's DAYBUE and NUPLAZID. Also joining us today is Elizabeth Thompson, PhD, Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development, who will provide an update on our pipeline programs; and Mark Schneyer, our Chief Financial Officer, who will review the financial highlights. Catherine will then provide some closing thoughts before we open up the call for your questions. We are using supplemental slides which are available on our website's Events and Presentations section. Before proceeding, I would like to remind you that during our call today, we will be making several forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, including goals, expectations, plans, prospects, growth potential, timing of events, future results, and 2025 financial guidance, are based on current information, assumptions, and expectations that are inherently subject to change and involve several risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially. These factors and other risks associated with our business can be found in our filings made with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place unique reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are made only as of today's date, and we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements as circumstances change, except as required by law. I'll now turn the call over to Catherine for opening remarks.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thank you, Al. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Now five months into my role as CEO of ACADIA, I'm excited to share an update on the significant progress we have made. During our last call, my first with ACADIA, I expressed my enthusiasm for the company's strong foundation and the potential of our pipeline. Since then, the developments we've achieved have only reinforced my confidence in our future. These recent developments include delivering strong financial results in both commercial brands, as we will detail later in the call, with revenue guidance targeted at over $1 billion in the U.S. in 2025, with volume growth for both brands. Announcing new commercial leadership with Tom Garner joining ACADIA as our new Chief Commercial Officer. Submitting our marketing application authorization with the European Medicines Agency for trofinetide setting us up for our first approval outside North America. Announcing a second indication we intend to study with ACP-204, Lewy Body Dementia Psychosis. Adding to our pipeline an exciting new neuroscience program in ACP-711 for the treatment of essential trauma. Providing greater transparency into the depth and diversity of our pipeline in both neuroscience and neuro rare diseases by disclosing more details about our programs culminating in our announcement of ACADIA's first R&D day to be held on June the 25th. And further strengthening our balance sheet with the sale of our priority review voucher. ACADIA's corporate strategy is anchored by our neuroscience and neuro rare disease franchises, and we plan to deliver long term growth by expanding these franchises, including exploring investments into additional adjacencies in rare disease. We also expect to execute some important value creating milestones in 2025 and 2026 which I will detail later in the call. Now turning to our commercial highlights. Our commercial brands finished…

Tom Garner

Management

Thank you, Catherine. I'm truly excited to join ACADIA for many of the reasons that you've highlighted. To share a little about my background, I bring over 25 years of commercial experience, spanning both large pharma and biotech, including two decades at Bristol, where I led the U.S. Cardiovascular and Established Brands Business Unit, overseeing a portfolio exceeding $10 billion in revenue. This experience included leading rare disease launches, such as CAMZYOS, and large brands such as ELIQUIS, which aligns well with my focus at ACADIA. Having successfully led and expanded commercial brands across a diverse range of therapeutic areas, I'm confident in the significant growth potential for both DAYBUE and NUPLAZID, both in the near and long term. As demonstrated in our strong Q4 results today, we are well-positioned to continue driving momentum and delivering sustained growth for both brands. Let's begin with DAYBUE. We achieved record quarterly sales of $96.7 million in the fourth quarter, bringing us to $348.4 million for the year. Growth in the quarter was primarily driven by volume through increased bottle use for patients, as more stable patients titrated their doses upwards towards the recommended dose. We did see some expected year-end pull forward, even excluding this dynamic. It was the third straight quarter of sequential bottle volume growth. During the quarter, 920 unique patients received paid shipments, which was essentially flat with the prior third quarter. An important factor for the future growth profile of DAYBUE is the fact that we have a stable and growing base of patients who remain on therapy long-term, with over 62% of our current patients now having been on therapy for 12-months or longer. In Q4, this group of patients accounted for around 90% of the total DAYBUE volume. Additionally, we observed a 15% quarter-over-quarter improvement in…

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

Thanks, Tom. I'll begin with a brief regulatory update and then turn to our later-stage pipeline programs. We were pleased to start 2025 with our first European submission for marketing approval. As announced last month, we have now submitted our MAA for trofinetide in the EU. With this submission, we anticipate approval in the first quarter of 2026. In Japan, we continue productive discussions with PMDA about trofinetide and expect to begin a Phase 3 study in Japanese patients living with Rett syndrome in the third quarter of this year. Now, I'll comment briefly on our later stage clinical programs as well as the recently licensed ACP-711. I'll start with our ACP-101 program in Prader-Willi syndrome. As a reminder, Prader-Willi is a rare genetic neurobehavioral disorder affecting roughly 8,000 to 10,000 patients in the U.S. The defining characteristic of Prader-Willi is hyperphagia, which is an intense, persistent sensation of hunger. The symptoms of hyperphagia appear very early in life, often leading to obesity and myriad complications like Type 2 diabetes or heart disease, as well as behavioral changes like anxiety and aggression. And unfortunately, life expectancy is currently only around 30 years old, largely due to cardiovascular disease. Carbetocin, a long-acting analog of human oxytocin, was developed to more selectively bind to the oxytocin receptor. With ACP-101, we're delivering Carbetocin intranasally to provide direct delivery to the brain. Our current Phase 3 study, called COMPASS PWS, is global, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled. The trial design is informed by prior Phase 3 experience in terms of both dose and endpoint selection. As we shared last month, we expect this trial to be fully enrolled by the fourth quarter of this year, setting us up to see top-line results in the first half of 2026. Turning next to our second late-stage…

Mark Schneyer

Management

Thank you, Liz. Let's now review our fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we recorded $259.6 million in total revenue, up 12% from the fourth quarter of last year. For the full year 2024, we recorded $957.8 million of total revenue, up 32% from the prior year. Fourth quarter DAYBUE net product sales were $96.7 million, up 11% year-over-year. Sequentially, DAYBUE sales were up 6% from the third quarter comprised of 5% volume growth and 1% net price growth. Full year DAYBUE sales were $348.4 million, up 97% compared to $177.2 million for the full year 2023. DAYBUE gross-to-net was 18.8% for the year. Fourth quarter NUPLAZID net product sales were $162.9 million, up 13% year-over-year, essentially split evenly between volume and net price. NUPLAZID gross-to-net for the quarter was 23.2%. Full year NUPLAZID net product sales were $609.4 million, up 11% compared to $549.2 million in the prior year. The increase in net sales for the year was also essentially split evenly between volume and net price. The NUPLAZID gross-to-net adjustment for the full year was 26.1%. R&D expenses for the full year decreased to $303.2 million in 2024 from $351.6 million in 2023, mainly due to decreased business development payments in 2024, partially offset by increased costs from clinical stage programs. SG&A expenses for the full year increased to $488.4 million in 2024 from $406.6 million in 2023, primarily driven by increased marketing cost to support the NUPLAZID engaging brands in the U.S., investments to support commercialization of DAYBUE outside the U.S. and onetime costs related to our CEO transition. Our cash balance at the end of 2024 was $756 million, substantially up from our cash balance on December 31, 2023, of $438.9 million, primarily driven by cash flows from…

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Mark. 2025 marks a new era for ACADIA, where we intend to drive substantial growth in our commercial brands to over $1 billion, globalize our business and advance new innovations for the benefit of patients in need. As you can see on this slide, we expect to achieve a number of significant milestones in 2025 and 2026. Now that we have filed our MAA for Europe, we will soon be making trofinetide available through managed access programs in certain ex-U.S. countries. That will actually generate our first ex-U.S. revenue in 2025 as we await approval in Europe anticipated in Q1 of 2026. For ACP-101, we're expecting to have Phase 3 fully enrolled by the end of this year with a top line readout expected in the first half of 2026. In terms of ACP-204, we expect complete enrollment early next year in our Phase 2 study in ADP with top line results expected around mid-2026. And we'll also initiate a Phase 2 study in LBDP in the third quarter of this year. From a corporate standpoint, it's a new era at ACADIA. We'll have our first ever R&D Day. And as you can see from our guidance, we expect to exceed $1 billion in annual net sales, joining a very select group of companies in biotech. I'm really pleased with the progress we've made in recent months and excited to share more with you as the year unfolds. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for our Q&A. Operator?

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Ami Fadia with Needham & Company.

Ami Fadia

Analyst

Just with regards to DAYBUE, how should we think about sort of the evolution of growth-to-net over sort of the foreseeable future over the next one or two years? And where do you see this drug peaking as you continue to invest more behind growing the product? And just with regards to NUPLAZID, there seems to be obviously an improvement in gross-to-net this year. How do we think about that over the next couple of years? Thank you.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Ami. Yeah, there's definitely some things with both growth-to-net that I think it's going to be helpful for Mark to give you a few more details around. So I'm going to ask Mark to talk to the DAYBUE and NUPLAZID growth-to-net as well as maybe talk about the peak itself.

Mark Schneyer

Management

Yeah. Thanks, Ami. On growth-to-net, starting with DAYBUE, we felt it was helpful to give some color this year, more specific color, as there's some changes year over year. As you see, it's going to increase year over year, primarily due to us factoring in changes in the Medicare Part D redesign as it impacts DAYBUE. Medicare is less than 10% of the volumes of DAYBUE, but it does add a point or two to growth-to-net. As we see it evolving over kind of the next years, it's probably going to remain in this low 20 range, but of course could fluctuate due to mix and fluctuate due to future pricing actions as it may relate to rates of inflation going forward. Transitioning to NUPLAZID, we had again the change this year due to the Medicare Part D redesign. We expect a 300 basis points price benefit in growth-to-net. Due to that, there are other mixed changes that influence our overall growth-to-net for NUPLAZID. As we do qualify for the small manufacturer benefit for NUPLAZID starting this year, that does unwind over the next handful of years. So, you'll see NUPLAZID gross-to-net getting up over time over the next several years. And as far as peak sales, thanks for the question on that. It's been our policy not to give a specific point to DAYBUE peak sales, but our expectations from here is, meaningfully growth, above and beyond where we are this year, and we look to achieving that over the years to come.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tessa Romero with JPMorgan.

Tessa Romero

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Good afternoon, Catherine and team. Thanks so much for taking our question. So, for DAYBUE, is the correct way to think about 1Q that you expect to have a decline in active patients on therapy from where you ended 4Q? And as a follow-up, is there a target number of patients that you think could be on or have been treated by the drug by the year end here? And what is the long-term target you think you can get to in terms of penetration?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Hey, Tessa. Thank you. I appreciate the question. I'm going to let Mark talk about the Q1 dynamics that we're expecting, but the short answer on the declining patients is no, but there are other dynamics going on. So, I'm just going to ask Mark to give you a little color there, and then we can talk to the target number of treated after he's taken you through that dynamic.

Mark Schneyer

Management

Yeah, I think, so, Catherine kind of hit the point there on the patient. The patient base is stable at this time. And so we'll continue to report the number of unique patients served, and we'll share the number for the first quarter on our next call. But it is stable. We don't expect a meaningful decline in patients sequentially. What's driving our expectation for sequential revenue decline are a number of the things that I mentioned in my prepared remarks. One, we do have kind of the seasonal pull forward of revenue between the first quarter and back into last year's fourth quarter as caregivers and families go through and anticipate their insurance renewal process in early in the year. That does also impact overall utilization in the first quarter, and we do expect, due to some of the changes in gross-to-net that I mentioned on the last question, to have a sequential decline in net price. So, those are the factors that are really going to drive an expectation on a sequential revenue decline quarter over quarter, not due to a patient decline.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Mark. So, I think, in terms of the overall vision for the target numbers treated, I'll just ask Tom to sort of elaborate on some of the points he's already brought up in the call earlier and then talk about future.

Tom Garner

Management

Yeah. Thank you, Tess. Thank you for the call. So, per -- the pre-prepared remarks, and as I mentioned, we still estimate that there's around 70% of the Rett population are yet to try DAYBUE. And as we think about our expansion strategy for the year ahead, tapping into that group of patients is going to be our number one priority. Again, as you think about where those patients sit today and we think about our expansion strategy, especially with our broadened commercial footprint, we know that 65% of those patients currently are treated outside of a major center of excellence. So, our goal, given the relatively low penetration rates there, around 25%, is going to be a key focus for us as we expand our reach, expand our frequency, so that those customers understand the value that DAYBUE offers when they have a discussion with a Rett patient or a Rett family.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joel Beatty with Baird.

Joel Beatty

Analyst · Baird.

The first one is I noticed since the last earnings call there's been an increased estimate of diagnosed U.S. Rett patients from about 5,000 before to between 5,500 to 5,800 now. Could you kind of discuss how you arrived at that number and your confidence in that? And as a second question, it's on ACP-711. Could you discuss how that compares with SAGE-324, which I think has a somewhat similar but different mechanism when we saw that fail in Phase 2 in a central tremor last year?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Yeah, thanks, Joel. I'll take the diagnosed patients real quick and then I'll transition over to Liz. So as you know, when we launched DAYBUE, we were talking about around 5,000 diagnosed patients in the U.S. And as we've been through the last sort of two years, we've gone up to 5,500 and now 5,800. And we continue to monitor that. We have a number of different data sources that we look at in terms of ICD-10 codes, et cetera, that come in from the various sources. So we keep track of that. And I would sort of say it's normal for a rare disease to see an increase in diagnosed patients, especially for the first in-market product. It tends to drive patients in, but also as payers ask for specific diagnoses, clinics tend to tighten up the diagnostics around each patient. And so that's typically tracking to what we would expect around a sort of a 10% to 15% increase. That will probably start to plateau, but for now, that's how we're getting the data. So Liz, why don't you take this 711 question?

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

Yeah, absolutely. So thank you for the question. The SAGE program and 711 are similar insofar as they're both targeted at GABA, but I think there's a very important distinction here, which is that the SAGE program was really had impact across different GABA-containing receptors. And part of what we really liked with 711 is that this really has the opportunity to focus in on Alpha-3-containing receptors. We think this gives us the best opportunity to really target the dysregulation and the dysfunction that you see in the GABA system in the central tremor, while sparing some of the potential safety side effects.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tazeen Ahmad with Bank of America Securities. Our next question comes from the line of Marc Goodman with Leerink Partners.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Bank of America Securities. Our next question comes from the line of Marc Goodman with Leerink Partners.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking our question. This is Basma on for Marc. Our first question is related to 204 and its lifecycle management strategy. Given that you recently initiated a new trial in dementia with Lewy bodies, if the drug proved to be efficacious in both Alzheimer's disease, psychosis, and Lewy bodies, would you expect going back to the FDA and maybe revive the whole basket trial opportunity in other dementia-related psychosis-related trials? And we have another question on NUPLAZID regarding the product awareness. You mentioned before that it's going down from 30% in 2020 to 8% currently. What is your goal with the current unbranded campaign in terms of what level of awareness you need to achieve and what is the timeline for that?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

So let's have Liz take the 204 question first and then we'll tackle the NUPLAZID question.

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

Yes. Thank you. So for ACP-204, we are investigating both in our currently ongoing trial in Alzheimer's disease like hoses as well as our planned upcoming trial in dementia with Lewy bodies and -- sorry, Lowy body dementia. And we would not anticipate going to FDA to try to get a dementia-related psychosis type of approval in the future. I think what we've learned through our interactions over time is that it's very important to FDA to see impact in the specific disease under consideration, so we do plan to continue with those separately. Our currently existent Phase 2, Phase 3 program for Alzheimer's disease psychosis, we anticipate it's going to be consistent with the data package that we would need to support approval and assume we see the results we're looking to see in that program. And we would design the Lewy body trial based on the results we see out of the Phase 2.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Liz. In terms of NUPLAZID, I think you were referring us back to last call where we talked about the reason for launching the DTC campaign, which was the low levels of unaided awareness around hallucinations and delusions amongst caregivers. And the reason to start the campaign was to raise that awareness. And therefore, encourage them to come in to their doctors and ask for a conversation about treatments. And so we have been measuring awareness, and we now see that at a much higher level. But Tom, I wonder if you could also talk to some of other DTC we're now seeing for patients coming in to sort of help the team understand a little bit more about the metric.

Tom Garner

Management

Absolutely. So as we mentioned during the opening remarks, our goal behind both the branded and unbranded campaign is to ensure that patients are aware as to what ADP means and what they should be doing as they kind of run into the symptoms associated with the disease. We're actually seeing some really nice uptick in terms of engagement from our -- both our branded and unbranded campaigns, driving traffic to both the awareness campaign, the Motus Parkinson's, but also to nuplazid.com. Remember, the primary goal behind doing this is making sure that we have patients who may be suffering from delusions and hallucinations, engaging with their caregiver; a, to discuss the disease itself, but also then to have a discussion around NUPLAZID, and we've been really encouraged by the early metrics that we're seeing. Bear in mind that this campaign only really went live in the middle of Q3. So won't come, but again, this is what gives us a good sense that we are leaving 2024 with some good momentum as we move into 2025.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

I think just to put a period behind that, Tom talked earlier about the increase in the market share that we've seen in NUPLAZID and that was in our NBRxs. And we've seen that jump from 20% to 25% by the end of last year. So again, just to show that the campaign is not only raising awareness and driving action. But actually, we're now seeing new scripts come through. So we're very encouraged by those specifics.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tazeen Ahmad with Bank of America Securities.

Tazeen Ahmad

Analyst · Bank of America Securities.

Can you hear me?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

We can.

Tazeen Ahmad

Analyst · Bank of America Securities.

Okay. Great. I had a question on Prader-Willi. As you think about the secondary endpoints that are going to be important to look at, can you talk to us about some of those? And what we should be looking for with those secondaries? And maybe an overall question about the competitive landscape in Prader-Willi. It does seem like a few companies are pursuing approaches with different twists to treat the same disease and just curious about what you think if there is just 1 right approach? And if not, what the advantage of your approach could be?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Tazeen. So I'll let Liz answer specifically more about the trial. I think just at a high level, in areas of unmet medical need like Prader-Willi, we are very confident that there will be multiple mechanisms of action that are going to be able to treat patients, especially looking at the fact that we're targeting different areas than Saniona is. But Liz, why don't you maybe talk more specifically to some of the specifics of the trials?

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

Yes. So as I think about our trial, and how we think about that in the context of the overall landscape. So what I'll say is we believe, and I think there is a good appreciation in the community that hyperphagia is in and of itself a really important portion of the patient and family experience here. And so I think that really, we've designed our study to focus on hyperphagia as a primary endpoint, and that is reflective of the fact that we think this is quite important in terms of the overall patient and family experience. So I think that really seeing an impact there, seeing an impact on, we have not just the continuous variable, which is our primary endpoint, but we also are looking at defined responder level, which I think is going to be important to help people contextualize the extent of benefit they might accept with ACP-101 treatment. I think those are going to be primarily important in terms of how we evaluate success of 101 trial. Certainly, there are other assessments that we have in our secondary endpoints looking at caregivers and physician assessment. And those are important as well. But I think that this hyperphagia being able to impact there is going to be very meaningful. I'll just echo what Catherine says in terms of -- there are a number of different approaches out there. And I think that we -- and we think that this reflects the fact that this is a complex patient population with different needs. For example, one of the other programs that's out there is focusing in particular on the daytime sleepiness. So there's a lot that goes on in this patient population, and again, to echo, we think there is room for multiple agents that work in different ways that meet the needs of individual patients.

Operator

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Paul Matteis with Stifel.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Stifel.

This is Julian on for Paul. On the NUPLAZID guide, it's a little bit wider than what you provided in years past. Can you just talk a little bit about the swing factors there? And what could be driving potential incremental uncertainty? And then for the EU, obviously, a large opportunity with just the prevalence of Rett in the continent. I guess, what gives you confidence that the data you've generated thus far will allow you to achieve favorable reimbursement in that region?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Julian. So yes, we've guided NUPLAZID with slightly wider guidance this year versus last year. I'll ask Mark to take you through some of the thinking. What I'll say at the outset is we're aimed through our guidance to be pragmatic and achievable, and I feel very comfortable with the arrangements that we've set for both brands this year. But there are some specific dynamics going on with NUPLAZID, particularly around the new Medicare landscape, but I'll just let Mark talk to a little bit.

Mark Schneyer

Management

Yes. I think Tom highlighted kind of our commercial initiatives. So there's a range of volume that can come out of the effectiveness of that, which I would put to your question is kind of would be more our typical range for NUPLAZID. What's new this year is the Medicare Part D redesign as it possibly could impact volume. I talked about impact to nest price earlier. So there are some potential tailwinds as well as headwinds. As you know, the patient out-of-pocket cost this year will be less. So that can provide incremental benefit on volume, while on the payer side, their cost will be increasing. So it's possible that there could be some headwinds there. So with this just being a new environment, and some uncertainty, we've got it was prudent to widen the range as our expectations could be a little broader this year than they have been in previous years.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

I think it's fair to say as we move through the year, and we see the impact of those dynamics. We start to understand them better that we'll look to guide to a narrow range, but we wanted to start the year with a nudge the fact that the Medicare landscape is quite volatile, and we wanted to re-understand it before we narrowed our guidance. So with that, I'll ask the next question.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from --

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Shannon, I apologize, Julian had another question around the EU, which I've not forgotten, but temporarily did. So Tom, why don't you talk to our EU confidence on what we're doing there?

Tom Garner

Management

Sure. So as I mentioned during the pre-prepared remarks, we're very excited about the opportunity that we believe the existing Europe. We can already say that we've had a number of requests from Rett's caregivers asking for the drug already, which we're handling carefully and judiciously. And at the same time, as I also referenced, we're building a highly tenured experience but focused team that's going to be based in Zug to really make sure that we can meet the demands of the European market quickly as we see an approval that we're anticipating in Q1 of next year. So I think the engagement that we're seeing from thought leaders, KOLs and also the patient community has been really, really encouraging, which gives us a good sense as to where we're going. I think as it comes to kind of the data. Obviously, we are generating more data all at the time. We'll have our additional data from LOTUS this year that's continuing, and we believe that this will give us a supplementary opportunity to really bolster our filing as we go through the European discussion. So we you feel very confident about DAYBUE's outlook in Europe.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Tom. So now we can open up for next question. Thanks, Shannon.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Gregory Renza with RBC Capital Markets.

Gregory Renza

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets.

Catherine team, congrats on that progress. Catherine, you've happily noted that ACADIA's pipeline looks vastly different than even a quarter ago. And as you build that out, I'm just curious then with respect to exploring those additional external investments that you speak of, what are the current gaps in ACADIA's portfolio right now? Perhaps a little color on where you see dimensions of rightsizing and getting to the optimal pipeline state, whether it's across the stage, the technical success or even the area of therapeutic interest.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Greg. Thank you for acknowledging the pipeline. We are excited for the milestones that we're going to be looking at in both '25 and '26 and also the additional color that Liz and the team will be sharing on our R&D Day. And we're all very excited about the possibilities within that to deliver on our promise. But as you say, ACADIA has always had a strong eye to BD. That's how we built our company, and we continue to focus there. I think with our strong balance sheet, which Mark outlined earlier, we're excited to look at our neurocytes, core areas or neuro rare core areas, but also as we announced earlier this year to look at some additional areas in rare in aligned therapeutic spaces, such as endocrine cardiovascular immunology, which might also fit under the ACADIA capabilities and competencies and allow us to sort of expand our expertise beyond neuro rare into those adjacent spaces. I think as the team come out of several investor meetings earlier this year and we move into sort of the end of Q1, we're very diligent about looking at opportunities. We're looking to fill our pipeline at any stage. I think the key for us is our high bar for strong clinical and scientific evidence, looking at areas of high unmet medical need where a company like ACADIA can play to win and importantly, where we can bring to market something that's either first-in-class or potentially best-in-class. And I think that's been written with NUPLAZID and DAYBUE, it will be the same for 101 and 204 and 711, and that's the bar that we will hold, that Liz keeps held high too and that we will continue to focus on. So thanks for the question.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Charles Duncan with Cantor.

Charles Duncan

Analyst · Cantor.

Congrats, Catherine and team on the commercial execution '24 and refreshed communication. I appreciate all the guidance. But I had a pipeline question and specifically around ACP-101, I noted that you are enrolling a big range in terms of age 5 to 30 and that's not new, but I'm wondering if Liz has a thought on the dynamic range of HQCT and whether or not she expects there to be an age-related call it, impact on being able to see a signal. And if there is an open-label extension study going on has there been rollover? And is there a persistence in that?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Charles, great to hear from you. I'm going to ask Liz to take that.

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

So Charles, great to hear from you. Thanks for the great question. As usual, I'll start with the easy one first, which is, yes, we do have an open-label extension for the program, and we are seeing good roll over into that, which I try not to over-read but that's always at least a neutral to positive sign that patients are interested in continuing on to the open-label expansion. As far as the dynamic range of age, I don't know that we have tremendously data out there across the age range. That said, this is a lifelong disease for these patients. We think it's important to generate information that helps us understand the impact across the age range. And we think that we're well set up to do that in this study. So I think that we don't have the perfect answer, but I do think that it is important to make sure that we understand the impact across the patient population.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Right. I think it's something that we're definitely going to learn through the study, right? Good question. Thank you, Charles.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ritu Baral with TD Cowen.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · TD Cowen.

This is Athena on for Ritu. Some questions on DAYBUE. You mentioned that more stable patients have been titrated to the recommended doses. What percentage does that represent out of all the patients who are currently on drug, you also noted there was a 15% improvement in discontinuation rates. What drove this improvement? And what strategies is your expanded sales force going to try and deploy to maintain the stable utilization of DAYBUE.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks, Athena. I'm going to ask Tom to give you some color on those questions.

Tom Garner

Management

Okay. So thank you for the question. So focusing on consumption to begin with. So yes, we continue to see consumption actually tick upwards slightly over time. At the moment, on average, for the complete cohort of patients we've had on treatment since launch. We're seeing about a 70% alignment with our target level. So that is kind of reflective of the fact that we know that patients do titrate their dose on occasions, per guidance that they're potentially getting from their ACP. But 70% is kind of what we're seeing, and that's what we saw tick up slightly through the end of the year towards 75%. So we're encouraged by what that looks like. In terms of your second question, which was regarding the 15% discontinuations. So as you know, we've learned a great deal, both about the Rett patient journey, but also about DAYBUE dynamics since we have launched the product. And one thing that we have learned is obviously the requirements of starting a patient really well, making sure that they understand what to expect to DAYBUE as they begin treatment. And through our ACADIA Connect team, and we have a dedicated team of family access managers, we can make sure that they get one-to-one care as they start their DAYBUE journey. So a lot of this is just around education. It's making sure that they understand what to expect with DAYBUE. How to make sure that we make sure that they have everything on hand that's needed to be able to manage that patient as they start the product, and that they fully appreciate the value that they're going to see with DAYBUE long term because 1 thing that we're going to be focused on a great deal 2025 is ensuring that the benefit and the efficacy message both for our ACPs and consumers is red large. The other thing that I would want to mention, and I think we mentioned this during both my prepared remarks and Mark's is that we do now have this very stable group of patients. 60% of our patients have now been on treatment for greater than 12 months or longer. So we're encouraged that we have this growing and stable base of patients. And that's, again, given that dynamic, we actually do see our consumption rates ticking up over time. So I hope that answers your question.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Sumant Kulkarni with Canaccord Genuity LLC.

Sumant Kulkarni

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity LLC.

It's a bit of a bigger picture question, but has a specific ACADIA-related angle. Given you're well into your Phase 3 program in Prader-Willi, do you foresee any changes at the FDA that might make things different versus what you might currently expect in terms of a potential back and forth with the agency on the data that you generate. What is the high unmet need indication?

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

Thanks for the question. We thought somebody might ask about FDA interactions. So yes, Liz, would do you want to talk to that?

Elizabeth Thompson

Management

Yes. I mean it's a little hard to speculate right now. I think that this is obviously quickly evolving space. We note that there was a memo that came out just today about potential across all agencies, potential reorganizations and large-scale risks. So what I'll say so far is we have not yet seen impact on our interactions. And I would say, generally, broadly speaking, not specific to PWS, but broadly speaking, we've not seen either changes in time or in the tenor of those interactions. But we, like everyone else in the space, are going to be watching this carefully and carefully keeping an eye on the tenor of regulatory interactions we have over time.

Operator

Operator

I would now like to turn the call back to Catherine Owen Adams for closing remarks.

Catherine Owen Adams

Management

I'd just like to thank everybody for their questions today and for their interest in ACADIA and look forward to connecting with you all in the future. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.