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First off, thanks to u/Internal_Ad_1091 for bringing my attention to this stock.
I am not yet a physician like u/Internal_Ad_1091, but I am a soon-to-be double doctor (MD/PhD student) giving my two cents on this stock.
Recap: Cassava sciences was attacked by Dr. David Bredt who filed a citizen's petition to the FDA claiming that Cassava had committed fraudulent science, therefore requiring that it halt all trials. That is why the stock is down from its high of ~$140. Yes, there is also Dr. Geoffrey Pitt who filed the claim with him, but he is not really important here.
What is important to know is that there are so many possible conflict of interest tied to Dr. David Bredt that we need to know about and WHY HE WANTS TO SEE CASSAVA FAIL. I am planning on submitting a tip to the SEC that can hopefully lead to a formal investigation on Dr. Bredt.
Speaking of weak allegations, let's look at what Dr. Bredt claims in his citizen's petition to the FDA. I won't go too much in depth here, but let's see how his claims stack up.
Dr. Bredt insinuates that Cassava forged the biomarker data by re-doing the bioassay themselves which was initially outsourced to an external lab. The external lab found the bioassay to show no therapeautic implications. Although this article does well explaining it, I will quickly recap: The external lab that Cassava outsourced to had no experience working with this protocol, thus giving weird data for patient AND control bioassays. What this means is that the external lab seriously messed up somewhere in the procedure and yielded false data. This was honestly a bad decision on Cassava's end for not making sure the external lab had the right expertise to conduct this study, but this doesn't mean Cassava forged the data.
Dr. Bredt also claims that figure 4 in a POSTER presentation is missing ONE patient data. Look, in academic research, poster presentations are considered a trial-run to see people's reactions before going ahead and publishing a paper. It's not a high stake ordeal. Case in point - I did a poster presentation at a conference as a sophomore in college. Instead the peer review paper you publish IS the real deal. When you analyze hundreds of clinical data, it is likely that you make a small error making those graphs. And especially for a low stake game like a poster? Very likely. Not including ONE patient data out of hundreds is not going to convince the FDA to stop trials.
2) Integrity of Western blots
Don't really have to explain a lot here. Dr. Bredt claimed data manipulation of western blot data from three papers.
3) Use of dead Human Brain tissue
Dr. Bredt does make good points about using dead brain tissue and attacks it. Yes, using a dead human brain is not the best method to use, but in a world where we cannot cut open living human skulls, this is the best option we've got to see the therapeautic workings in a human model. Also, the study that Dr. Bredt attacks is not a foundation study to Cassava Sciences. It is only there to check off boxes to show the FDA that they did an ex vivo (outside the living body) study to show efficacy of their treatment.
I seriously doubt the FDA not dismissing this citizen's petition and the stock will bounce back to its normal level ~$150 when they dismiss the allegations. So for those doubting SAVA and thinking about selling the stock, I urge you to hold.
TL;DR: Dr. Bredt has numerous conflict of interest where he benefits from the demise of Cassava Sciences. Dr. Bredt's claims on SAVA does not stack up very well and the stocks will bounce when FDA dismisses the case in February.