By Puyaan Singh and Bhanvi Satija (Reuters) -AbbVie shares fell over 12% on Monday after an experimental schizophrenia drug the company acquired last year failed two mid-stage studies, widening rival Bristol Myers Squibb's lead in the market for new treatments for the condition.

AbbVie said a recently acquired drug candidate for schizophrenia missed the key goal in mid-stage studies, pushing its stock sharply lower. Phase 2 studies for emraclidine failed to show a statistically significant improvement in symptoms after six weeks,

AbbVie’s experimental treatment for schizophrenia failed to significantly help patients in two trials, a blow to the company.

AbbVie said on Monday its experimental schizophrenia drug failed to meet the main goal of two mid-stage trials, sending its shares down more than 11% in premarket trading.The drug, emraclidine, failed to show a statistically significant improvement on a widely used scale for measuring symptom severity of schizophrenia.

Negative data cost AbbVie billions of dollars in market value and convinced analysts Bristol Myers had placed a better bet in buying Karuna Therapeutics.

AbbVie Inc. shares fell the most in three years after two mid-stage trials of its drug to treat schizophrenia failed to meet their primary goal, a blow to the company’s $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics earlier this year.

AbbVie reports disappointing mid-stage data for its schizophrenia drug. Jason Snipe of Odyssey Capital still likes AbbVie stock.

AbbVie Inc.’s disappointing trial results for its new schizophrenia drug bode well for rival Bristol Myers Squibb Co., analysts said. On Monday AbbVie ABBV said that its Phase 2 trial investigating emraclidine as a once-daily oral monotherapy treatment for adults with schizophrenia did not meet the primary endpoint of showing a “statistically significant” improvement when compared with a placebo group.

The failure of emraclidine, which AbbVie obtained after acquiring Cerevel, may present a considerable advantage for rival BMS.