Wall Street darling Cassava Sciences comes under fire as scientists question trial irregularities

A small biotech company — which will be the first of its kind — that saw its stock value rocket after announcing it had developed a drug that could reverse Alzheimer’s cognitive decline is now accused of falsifying or falsifying data.

Cassava Sciences, a company based in Austin, Texas, announced last year that the drug simulator showed incredible promise in early testing and was rewarded with a staggering $135 per share after years of under $5.

But then the skeptics came, as more experts pointed to irregularities in the published data, even making major claims that the company and the researchers involved were manipulating the data.

The company is currently facing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and some of its research data has been withdrawn or potentially tampered with by journals.

This is the second major controversy over a newly developed Alzheimer’s drug in the past 12 months, and Biogen’s Aduhelm also received a wave of criticism after it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year.

Cassava’s share price has seen widespread growth after revealing promising data from Alzheimer’s drug trials. Since then, it has been caught amid growing allegations of data manipulation.

The allegations focused on two researchers, Hoau-Yan Wang of CUNY in New York City and Lindsay Burns of Cassava, who has previously published two studies on the brain.

Late last year, the Journal of Neuroscience published a “statement of concern” about data published by two researchers at the end of 2021, Time of Retreat † reported.

This means that newspaper editors have doubts about the accuracy of the published data.

Last month, another study authored by the key pair of Cassava’s findings noted an “expression of concern” from Neurobiology of Aging †

Last year, New York City-based law firm Labaton Sucharow filed a citizens’ petition with the FDA stating that it “has serious concerns about the quality and integrity of the laboratory studies surrounding this drug candidate and supporting the drug-related claims.” Reports the Withdrawal Trace.

The law firm represents investors who have taken a short position in the company’s stock and will benefit financially from the company’s falling prices.

A few weeks later, PLoS One, a journal criticized by many experts for not having a particularly rigorous peer-review process, retracted five of Wang’s articles.

The New York Times reported that CUNY has launched an ongoing investigation into Wang.

The Wall Street newspaper reported last November that before raising initial concern, the SEC launched an investigation into the company, alleging it could defraud investors using manipulated research data to inflate the share price.

Cassava received funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop the drug and is now facing an investigation from that agency, the Times reports.

The drug was apparently able to reverse the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease in two-thirds of the patients. No other drug on the market can do this.

Only a drug can truly slow cognitive decline, Biogen’s Aduhelm, which many doubt works, was turned down for Medicare coverage in the United States, and its developers were also accused of inaccurate data practices.

Experts noted that some fluctuations in biomarkers reported in studies made no sense and questioned the study results.

“This kind of inconsistency really raises questions about the accuracy and reliability of these results,” Dr William Hu, a neurologist at Rutgers University, told the Times.

Another study showed that the drug could restore the shape of certain proteins in the brain, which is Stanford University neuroscientist Dr. Thomas Südhof was “not possible in any rational way”.

Image processing expert Elisabeth Bik has found other studies using manipulated photos, reporting that her research found visual cues from cassava.

Shares of the company suffered from the allegations. It was as high as $90.91 per share in early November before the WSJ report was released and has since dropped to $22.46 on Tuesday’s closing bell.