Investigation finds ‘egregious misconduct’ by CUNY scientist

In a report shared with Science in October 2023, a committee investigating allegations of misconduct by Dr. Hoau-Yan Wang, a professor at the City College of New York (CCNY, which falls under the City University of New York (CUNY)), found evidence that was ‘highly suggestive of deliberate scientific misconduct’. Dr. Wang has been a frequent collaborator with Cassava Sciences (Nasdaq: SAVA), a biotech company working on a drug called simufilam for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, Dr. Wang was unable to provide the committee with any original data or notebooks that could have addressed concerns about his work. Although the suspicions of manipulated images could therefore not be proved, the investigation revealed “long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping by Dr. Wang”.

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Cassava Sciences: Of Posters and Spaghetti Plots

In a previous blog post, I took a look at Western blots in papers from the lab of Dr. Hoau-Yan Wang at City University of New York (CUNY), mostly related to Cassava Sciences (Nasdaq: $SAVA), its predecessor Pain Therapeutics INC, and its flagship Alzheimer’s Disease drug candidate Simufilam.

While those papers were mainly about the preclinical Simufilam data, here I will review a conference poster reporting on Phase 2 data obtained by Cassava Sciences.

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Cassava Sciences: Of stocks and blots

A group of anonymous persons filed a Statement of Concern with the FDA regarding the integrity of research papers about Simufilam, an Alzheimer’s Disease treatment drug candidate developed by Cassava Sciences (Nasdaq: $SAVA). The petition raises concerns about Western blots and methodology. I took a look at the problematic photos included in the report, and agree with most of those concerns. I also found some additional problems.

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