Acorda Trading Halted (NASDAQ:ACOR)

It was not a good start for Acorda Therapeutics on Wednesday morning when NASDAQ decided to halt the trading of Acorda Therapeutics shares until the experts have voted on Acorda’s new MS drug. Acorda Therapeutics faces a long-awaited FDA advisory panel review today of its multiple sclerosis drug Fampridine. The problem that Food and Drug Administration panel faced was whether they should allow and approve Fampridine that improves the walking ability of a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis, at the same time Fampridine possesses risk of seizures.

Additionally, the FDA panel had come up with new concerns regarding Fampridine when they raised several questions regarding the clinical significance of the increase in walking speed researchers had demonstrated in clinical trials. Last week, Eric Bastings, Deputy Director of the FDA’s Division of Neurology Products stated that the improvements noted for Fampridine was very small and the average time to complete the 25-foot walk was not different from the other treatment groups. On the other hand, Fampridine has a lot of side-effects and patients may have a high risk of seizures which is why FDA had taken plenty of time to ponder over several points before they go ahead and approve Acorda’s Fampridine drug.