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AbbVie lost about $40 billion in market value Monday morning after an experimental drug the company had bet heavily on failed two important clinical trials.The drug, called emraclidine, was developed by Pfizer spinout Cerevel Therapeutics, which AbbVie recently acquired for almost $9 billion. Its one of a new class of brain-balancing medications researchers see as valuable tools for treating a variety of psychiatric conditions. With emraclidine, Cerevel chose schizophrenia as the first target, and over the past couple of years has been running a pair of studies to assess whether the drug can quickly alleviate symptoms of the disorder.AbbVie has now disclosed the studies did not succeed. Three doses of the drug were tested, and neither performed significantly better than a placebo after six weeks of treatment. The trials together enrolled around 750 participants, and evaluated them with a well-known scale used to measure the different symptoms people with schizophrenia experience, from positive ones like excitement and hallucinations to negative ones like emotional withdrawal.“While we are disappointed with the results, we are continuing to analyze the data to determine next steps,“ said Roopal Thakkar, AbbVies chief scientific officer,in the companys statement.The Illinois-based pharmaceutical giant said neuroscience remains one of its key focus areas. Just last month, AbbVie announced plans to spend $1.4 billion buying a startup with an experimental treatment for Alzheimers disease.The company also noted how it gained an entire pipeline of drug programs from the Cerevel acquisition, with multiple clinical-stage and preclinical candidates that complement its existing portfolio of brain medicines. Net revenue from that portfolio, which includes Botox, the antipsychotic Vraylar and the migraine medication Ubrelvy, totaled almost $6.5 billion over the first nine months of this year.One such Cerevel drug, a Parkinsons treatment called tavapadon, defied analyst expectations by succeeding in a late-stage trial earlier this year.Still, AbbVie investors may not see much of a silver lining. Company shares were down more than 12% Monday morning, representing one of the largest single-day dips involving a big pharma stock over the past year.This is disappointing and unexpected, wrote Louise Chen, an analyst at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, in a note to clients.In an earlier, much smaller schizophrenia trial, researchers found two doses of emraclidine each beat a placebo at reducing scores on the same symptoms scale used in the Phase 2 studies.Additionally, emraclidine works in a similar way to Cobenfy, an antipsychotic medication that succeeded in three medium- to large-sized clinical trials before receiving Food and Drug Administration approval in September. Less than three weeks after AbbVie announced its Cerevel acquisition, Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to buy Cobenfys developer, Karuna Therapeutics, for $14 billion.Schizophrenia patients switch medications often, either because they carry side effects like weight gain or because they arent properly controlling the disease. Clinical testing of Cobenfy showed it doesnt cause some of the more challenging side effects seen with other antipsychotics. That, plus Cobenfys ability to act quickly, has led both Bristol Myers and Wall Street analysts to expect billions of dollars in peak annual sales from the drug.Shares of Bristol Myers were up almost 12% late Monday morning.Olivia Brayer, an analyst at Cantor who covers the company, argues that emraclidines failure removes a major overhang for Cobenfy, as its biggest competitive threat in schizophrenia is no longer.The Cerevel acquisition just went up in flames, Brayer wrote in a note to clients, adding that her team has been getting questions about how Bristol Myers stock could move based on the results of AbbVies two studies. But an outright failure wasn't on anyone's bingo card. '