Sept 24 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Acorda Therapeutics Inc said it bought privately held Civitas Therapeutics for $525 million to gain access to a Parkinson's disease drug in late development.

Acorda's shares rose 7.3 percent to $31.48 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Acorda also obtained global rights for Civitas' experimental drug, CVT-301, used as an additional therapy to treat certain episodes in patients with Parkinson's disease.

These include episodes in which symptoms such as inability to move and muscle stiffness reappear while the patient is under treatment.

CVT-301 is an inhaled dry powder formulation of the current standard oral treatment, levodopa.

(Reporting by Anjali Rao Koppala in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)