The circumstances surrounding Cassava Sciences read like a nonfiction scientific thriller: a little-known biopharmaceutical company, a groundbreaking new drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease, and two short sellers—one with ties to Big Pharma—personally vested in driving the company’s stock price down.
By way of background, the saga began when Cassava’s laboratory-based studies for its experimental drug, simufilam, appeared to show beneficial effects in human brains with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive brain disorder that destroys memory and thinking skills. With its research showing promising results, Cassava secured grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for simufilam.
