Benzinga | Dec 21, 2021 09:30AM EST

Cassava Sciences Says Science Journal Finds No Evidence To Support Claims Of Data Manipulation In 2005 Publication

Cassava Sciences, Inc., (NASDAQ:SAVA) a biotechnology company, has been informed by Neuroscience journal there is no evidence to support claims of data manipulation in a 2005 paper1 authored by the Company and its scientific collaborators. Neuroscience is a prestigious academic journal whose mission is to report "significant, new and carefully confirmed findings with full experimental details."2

"Another science journal has cleared us of allegations," said Remi Barbier, President & CEO. "This clearance is from an independent third party who is neutral and expert in the field. This reinforces my conviction that false and misleading allegations of scientific misconduct being made against us are simply designed to enrich those making them. People who seek to profit from false allegations may not comprehend the harm they are causing the Alzheimer's community, or perhaps they simply don't care. Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake in the quest for profit, with little concern for patients or their caregivers, is a twisted form of money-making and the opposite of what people with dementia deserve."

In August 2021, a law firm representing admitted short sellers submitted a Citizen Petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that alleges, among other things, data manipulation in scientific articles authored by Cassava scientists, including the 2005 Neuroscience article. In response to this and similar online allegations, Neuroscience requested raw data for the 2005 article, including images of original, uncropped Western blots. Having completed a careful examination of the data, on December 20, 2021, Neuroscience published on-line the following Editorial Note3

"In response to allegations of data manipulation in an article published inNeuroscience Vol 135, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 247-261, and following COPE(Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines, the journal asked the authors forimages of the original, uncropped Western blots from this study. After carefulexamination of these original material, Neuroscience found no evidence ofmanipulation of the Western blot data or other figures of this publication."

In November 2021, Cassava Sciences reported that a different science journal (i.e., Journal of Neuroscience) also found no evidence to support allegations of data manipulation in an article it published in 2012. On December 17, 2021, the Journal of Neuroscience issued a subsequent Expression of Concern while maintaining its earlier clearance, pending the outcome of a different investigation by an academic party into allegations.



Additionally, in October 2021, a respected academic researcher, PhD in Molecular Biology, published on a website4 his detailed examination of allegations made in a supplement to the Citizen Petition. The researcher, whose laboratory routinely runs a thousand or more Western blots per year, concluded that claims of scientific misconduct levied against Cassava Sciences and its collaborator were "borderline ridiculous"5, noting that "several of the examples shown as evidence of data manipulation [in the Citizen Petition] support the opposite [conclusion]."6 Cassava Sciences has not provided any form of compensation to the academic researcher and has no control over the contents of this website or its author.

Cassava Sciences is grateful for journal editors and independent reviewers who have taken time from busy research schedules to address the allegations.