Scientist who worked on Cassava’s Alzheimer drug simufilam charged with fraud

A tenured professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) who was a key scientific consultant in the development of Cassava Sciences’ proposed Alzheimer’s drug simufilam faces the possibility of decades behind bars after being charged with fraud in a case that has rocked confidence in the science underpinning the company’s claims.

Hoau-Yan Wang, 67, is charged with one count of major fraud against the US, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years; two counts of wire fraud, with a maximum sentence of 30 years; and making false statements, punishable by up to five years.

Wang “made false, fraudulent, and misleading statements about the mechanism by which drug A (simufilam) was designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and the improvement of certain indicators associated with advanced Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration in patients treated with drug A,” the charging document alleges.1

He received about $16m in research grants from the National Institutes of Health between 2017 and 2021.

News of Wang’s indictment triggered a further fall in Cassava’s share price to about $11, down from its $138 high in 2021. Days later, in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Cassava confirmed reports that the company is under investigation …