US professor charged with manipulating data for Alzheimer’s drug trial (updated)

Filana Therapeutics

28/06/2024 22:43

(Adds Cassava statement, paragraph 7)
    By Luc Cohen and Marisa Taylor
       June 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. medical professor has been
charged with fraud for allegedly submitting false data to get
millions of dollars in public funds for research into a drug to
treat Alzheimer’s disease. 
    Federal prosecutors said on Friday that Hoau-Yan Wang, 67,
fabricated data included in grant applications to the National
Institutes of Health on behalf of himself and a publicly-listed
Austin, Texas-based pharmaceutical company for which he was a
consultant. 
    The NIH awarded Wang, a professor at the City University of
New York’s (CUNY) medical school, around $16 million between
2017 and 2021, prosecutors said. 
    Prosecutors did not name the company, but it fits the
description of Cassava Sciences  SAVA.Q , which lists Wang as a
consultant. Cassava was not accused of wrongdoing. 
In 2021, two physicians unaffiliated with Cassava alleged the
research underpinning its Alzheimer's drug, called simufilam,
was based on manipulated and misrepresented data. 
    Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokespeople for CUNY and the NIH had no immediate comment. 
    Cassava said in a statement that Wang worked on the drug's
"early development" but "had no involvement in the company's
phase 3 trials of simufilam."
    A phase 3 trial refers to a late-stage, large-scale test.
The company said on May 10 that over 735 patients had
participated in simufilam's phase 3 trial. 
    A lawyer for Cassava told Reuters in 2022 that allegations
about simufilam's research were "false and misleading," and that
the company had complied with requests for information from
government agencies. 
Cassava's website describes Wang as the co-lead scientist on
discovery and development of simufilam. Slides of conference
presentations available on Cassava's website refer to Wang as a
consultant to the company.. 
Cassava shares surged from $7 in January 2021 to above $135 in
July 2021 on investor hopes the company was on the verge of a
breakthrough in treating Alzheimer's, a common form of
dementia. 
    The stock plunged after its research results were
questioned. Shares were down more than 40% at $11 on Friday
afternoon.
    Wang could face decades in prison if convicted on all four
counts of fraud and false statements he faces, though any
sentence would ultimately be determined by a judge. A federal
grand jury sitting in Greenbelt, Maryland, indicted him on
Thursday, court records showed.  
     

 (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Marisa Taylor in
Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
 ((luc.cohen@thomsonreuters.com))