Lipocine's postpartum depression pill misses main goal in late-stage study

April 2 (Reuters) - Lipocine LPCN.O said on Thursday its experimental oral drug for postpartum depression failed to meet the main goal of reducing severity of depression symptoms in a late-stage study, sending the drug developer's shares down about 77% in premarket trading.

• The oral drug, LPCN 1154, was tested in 90 patients with postpartum depression.

• Lipocine said the study's main goal was to measure change in depression symptoms on a standard depression scale 60 hours after dosing, and the drug did not outperform placebo at that time.

• In a separate analysis done after the trial, Lipocine said patients with a prior history of psychiatric illness showed larger and faster improvements than those given placebo, starting as early as 12 hours and lasting up to 30 days.

• Lipocine said the drug was generally safe, with no serious side effects reported and no cases of excessive sleepiness or loss of consciousness.

• The company said it plans to preserve cash and review all options, including further studies of LPCN 1154, partnerships, or other strategic moves.

• Lipocine said it expects to complete a full analysis of the trial data in the coming weeks and present detailed results at upcoming medical conferences.