By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Cassava Sciences stock (NASDAQ:SAVA) climbed more than 56% Thursday after the company said the Journal of Neuroscience had found no evidence of data manipulation in an article it published in July 2012 describing a new approach to treating Alzheimer's disease.
The criticism against the company, posted online in August, questioned the scientific integrity of the company.
The peer-reviewed article was co-authored by scientists and academic collaborators for Cassava Sciences and is foundational to simufilam, the company’s lead drug candidate for treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Disputing the validity of Cassava’s clinical biomarker data and the integrity of Western Blot Analysis, a ‘statement of concern’ was posted requesting the Food and Drug Administration to halt the current clinical study of simufilam.
Cassava said the biomarker data of Alzheimer’s patients was generated by Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX), an independent company, and presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
The company said Western Blot Analysis is foundational to the biotechnology industry and is a standard lab technique used worldwide to detect a protein of interest.
“We remain focused on conducting a Phase 3 clinical program of simufilam in people with Alzheimer’s disease,” said CEO Remi Barbier in a statement today.
The company had lost more than a third of its market cap on August 25, the day criticisms became public even as it rebutted all of them point-by-point. More than two months later and accounting for the session's gains so far, it is now trading over the lows of that day.