Axsome Therapeutics said on Monday its experimental drug to treat agitation related to Alzheimer's disease succeeded in one of the two late-stage studies and failed to meet the main goal of the second trial.
Shares of the drug developer, which was testing the treatment, AXS-05, dropped 12% in premarket trading, Reuters reported.
The agitation is a symptom that causes emotional distress as well as verbal and physical aggressiveness.
The treatment significantly delayed the time to relapse in agitation as measured on a disease severity scale in one study, but did not demonstrate statistical significance in delaying agitation in another late-stage trial.
AXS-05 was safe and well tolerated in both the studies, the company said.