Cassava Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SAVA) announced on June 28, 2024 that Hoau-Yan Wang has been indicted for alleged fraud against the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The charges accuse Wang, a tenured medical professor at a public university’s medical school and a former paid science advisor to Cassava Sciences, of engaging in illegal activities to defraud the government through NIH grant applications totaling approximately $16 million between 2017 and 2021.
Wang’s work under these grants was focused on the early development phases of the Company’s drug candidate and diagnostic test, with the aim of understanding how they were intended to function. It is important to note that Wang and his former university have not been involved in the Company’s Phase 3 clinical trials of simufilam, Cassava Sciences’ lead drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease.
According to court documents, Wang is accused of falsifying data and making false statements in NIH grant applications in order to obtain funding for his research. These allegations are particularly troubling given that they involve one of our former advisors who had access to sensitive information about our drug development efforts. We take this matter very seriously and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies as we work towards resolving this matter.
For more information regarding this matter, please contact Eric Schoen, Chief Financial Officer at (512) 501-2450 or via email at ESchoen@CassavaSciences.com