The neurodegenerative diseases-focused biopharma Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA has now lost half of its market capitalization.
What Happened: Cassava shares plunged Wednesday in reaction to a citizen petition calling for halting clinical studies of its lead drug candidate simufilam due to alleged data manipulation and misrepresentation.
The stock shed over 31% Wednesday and lost another 12.4% Thursday.
The weakness was despite the company issuing a point-by-point response for each of the accusations.
Cassava Sell-Off Deepens: Friday's weakness was triggered by a release from Quanterix Corporation QTRX, a company engaged in digitizing of biomarker analysis.
One of the claims made in the citizen petition was the biomarker data is generated by Cassava or its collaborators and therefore falsified.
The company responded by saying the plasma p-tau data from the Alzheimer's patients was generated by Quanterix, an independent company, and was presented at the recent Alzheimer's Association International Conference.
In its statement, Quanterix said Cassava previously engaged its Accelerator laboratory to perform sample testing based on blinded samples provided by Cassava.
"Quanterix or its employees did not interpret the test results or prepare the data charts presented by Cassava at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in July 2021 or otherwise," the statement read.
Additionally, Labaton Sucharow, the law firm that filed the citizen petition to the Food and Drug Administration, released a statement late Thursday stating leading international experts on scientific integrity have independently validated key aspects of the petition and have critically questioned the company's response.
SAVA Price Action: At last check, Cassava shares were down 24.3% at $53.64.
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