San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - September 7, 2021) - Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP filed a class action lawsuit charging Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVA) and certain of its executives with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and seeks to represent purchasers or acquirers of Cassava Sciences securities between September 14, 2020 and August 27, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit is pending in the Western District of Texas and is captioned Brazeau v. Cassava Sciences, Inc., No. 21-cv-00751. A similar lawsuit, Newell v. Cassava Sciences, Inc., No. 21-cv-00760, is also pending in the Western District of Texas.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit, please provide your information by clicking here. You can also contact attorney Mary K. Blasy of Robbins Geller by calling 800/449-4900 or via e-mail at mblasy@rgrdlaw.com. Lead plaintiff motions for the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit must be filed with the court no later than October 26, 2021.
CASE ALLEGATIONS: Cassava Sciences' lead therapeutic product candidate during the Class Period was simufilam, a small molecule drug designed to treat Alzheimer's disease. On February 2, 2021, Cassava Sciences announced results from its interim analysis of an open-label study of simufilam, which purportedly demonstrated that patients' cognition and behavior scores both improved following six months of simufilam treatment, with no safety issues. As the market digested this ostensibly great news, the market price of Cassava Sciences common stock increased and Cassava Sciences immediately cashed in on the stock price inflation, issuing and selling more than four million shares of its common stock at $49 per share on February 12, 2021 through an underwritten follow-on public stock offering and reaping more than $200 million in gross proceeds.
The Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (i) the quality and integrity of the scientific data supporting Cassava Sciences' claims for simufilam's efficacy had been overstated; (ii) the scientific data supporting Cassava Sciences' claims for simufilam's efficacy were biased; and (iii) as a result, defendants' positive statements during the Class Period about Cassava Sciences' business metrics and financial prospects and the likelihood of U.S. Food Drug Administration ("FDA") approval were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
On August 24, 2021, after the market close, it was disclosed that the FDA had received a so-called Citizen Petition commencing an administrative action to "halt two ongoing trials of the drug [s]imufilam . . . pending a thorough audit by the FDA." As detailed in the Citizen Petition, "[i]nformation available to the petitioner . . . raises grave concerns about the quality and integrity of the laboratory-based studies surrounding this drug candidate and supporting the claims for its efficacy." After summarizing its findings, the Citizen Petition went on to conclude that "the extensive evidence set forth in the enclosed report, which presents grave concerns about the quality and integrity of the scientific data supporting Cassava [Sciences'] claims for [simufilam]'s efficacy, provides compelling grounds for pausing the ongoing clinical trials until the FDA can conduct and complete a rigorous audit of Cassava [Sciences'] research." On this news, the price of Cassava Sciences common stock fell approximately 32%. On August 25, 2021, before the market opened, Cassava Sciences issued a response to the Citizen Petition, claiming that the allegations regarding scientific integrity are false and misleading. Among other things, Cassava Sciences claimed that the clinical data, which the Citizen Petition stated had been reanalyzed to show simufilam was effective, had been generated by Quanterix Corp., an independent company, suggesting that the reanalysis was valid. On this news, Cassava Sciences' share price fell approximately 32%.
Then, on August 27, 2021, before the market opened, Quanterix Corp. issued a statement denying Cassava Sciences' claims, stating that it "did not interpret the test results or prepare the data" touted by Cassava Sciences. The same day, Cassava Sciences responded to Quanterix's statement, stating that "Quanterix'[s] sole responsibility with regard to this clinical study was to perform sample testing, specifically, to measure levels of p-tau in plasma samples collected from study subjects." On this news, Cassava Sciences' share price fell an additional 17.6%, further damaging investors.
THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Cassava Sciences securities during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit. A lead plaintiff is generally the movant with the greatest financial interest in the relief sought by the putative class who is also typical and adequate of the putative class. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice to litigate the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery of the Cassava Sciences class action lawsuit is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
ABOUT ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP: With 200 lawyers in 9 offices nationwide, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is the largest U.S. law firm representing investors in securities class actions. Robbins Geller attorneys have obtained many of the largest shareholder recoveries in history, including the largest securities class action recovery ever - $7.2 billion - in In re Enron Corp. Sec. Litig. The 2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report ranked Robbins Geller first for recovering $1.6 billion for investors last year, more than double the amount recovered by any other securities plaintiffs' firm. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information.
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