If you suffered losses exceeding $100,000 investing in Cassava stock or options between August 18, 2022 and October 12, 2023 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). You may also click here for additional information: www.faruqilaw.com/SAVA.
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NEW YORK, Feb. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Cassava Sciences, Inc. (“Cassava” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: SAVA) and reminds investors of the April 2, 2024 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company.
Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading minority and Woman-owned national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia.
As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (i) the Company failed to maintain adequate and effective data management controls and procedures related to its drug research programs; (ii) as a result, the data published in support of simufilam were susceptible to manipulation to overstate the drug’s effectiveness; (iii) accordingly, Cassava had misrepresented the efficacy of its research programs and the clinical and/or commercial prospects of simufilam; (iv) all of the foregoing, once revealed, was likely to subject the Company to significant financial and/or reputational harm; and (v) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
Cassava is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. The Company’s lead therapeutic drug candidate is PTI-125 (or “simufilam”), a small molecule drug for the proposed treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
In March 2020, Cassava initiated a long-term, open-label study to evaluate the long-term safety and tolerability of simufilam 100 mg twice daily for 12 or more months in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and to assess exploratory efficacy endpoints, such as changes in cognition, and biomarkers.
Then, in August 2021, a Citizen Petition requested the United States Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) to halt any phase 3 trials of simufilam due to concerns regarding data manipulation. Specifically, the Citizen Petition referenced “grave concerns about the quality and integrity of the laboratory-based studies surrounding this drug candidate and supporting the claims for its efficacy.”
However, in response, Cassava denied the allegations in the Citizen Petition and instead touted the effectiveness of simufilam and the efficacy of the Company’s research programs. Indeed, in a press release published shortly after the FDA received the Citizen Petition, Cassava stated that “[t]he Company stands behind its science, its scientists and its scientific collaborators.” Thereafter, Cassava continued to maintain its defense of simufilam even as criticisms of simufilam were revealed from additional sources and academic journals such as Neurobiology of Aging and the Journal of Neuroscience issued “expressions of concern” regarding the efficacy of the drug.
On October 12, 2023, the peer-reviewed academic journal Science reported that Professor Hoau-Yan Wang (“Dr. Wang”), a City University of New York researcher associated with the research program for simufilam, had been investigated by university officials for possible data manipulation. Although the investigative committee did not have access to the raw data at issue and thus was unable to confirm that data manipulation had occurred, members made their conclusion based on “long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping by Dr. Wang” and “found evidence highly suggestive of deliberate scientific misconduct” by Dr. Wang.
On this news, Cassava’s stock price fell $2.68 per share, or 15.28%, to close at $14.86 per share on October 13, 2023.
The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not.
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Cassava’s conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.
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