A federal grand jury has indicted Hoau-Yan Wang, a neuroscientist at the City University of New York and a paid consultant for Cassava Sciences, on charges of defrauding the National Institutes of Health in grant applications that supported the company’s Alzheimer’s drug. The U.S. Department of Justice made this announcement on Friday.
Wang published research supporting the effectiveness of simufilam, an experimental Alzheimer’s therapy being tested by Cassava in late-stage clinical trials. However, outside researchers, including a panel of CUNY investigators, have raised concerns about the validity of Wang’s work, claiming that his research contains fabricated and falsified data and extensive data manipulations.
The Justice Department accused Wang of securing $16 million in NIH funding by submitting fraudulent grant applications on behalf of himself and Cassava. The indictment states that the purpose of the scheme was for Wang to enrich himself through continued and future compensation by making false statements to the NIH about his scientific research.
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