Quanterix Corp. took a turn at Cassava Sciences Inc. on Friday, but then Cassava responded and stressed that Quanterix was hired to perform sample testing of the controversial test data.
SAVA cassava shares,
it had fallen as much as 30.4% earlier in the session, to an intraday low of $ 49.29, but recovered after posting a statement around 11:31 a.m. Eastern.
However, shares closed up 17.7% to $ 58.34 and have fallen 50.5% in the last three sessions.
The liquidation of the shares this week started with a fall of 31.4% on Wednesday, after a “statement of concern” was published on Tuesday afternoon asking the Food and Drug Administration to halt studies clinicians of cassava simufilam, a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The post discussed the validity of clinical biomarker data, the integrity of Western blot analyzes, and the integrity of analyzes involving human brain tissue.
Cassava responded to the allegations early Wednesday, saying she believed the allegations were “false and misleading.” In all, Cassava listed 15 “fictions” in the allegations and followed them with “facts”.
The first “fiction” of the allegations that Cassava pointed out was that biomarker data were generated by Cassava or his scientific collaborators and are therefore falsified. The company’s response was: “Data: Cassava Sciences’ p-tau plasma data from Alzheimer’s patients were generated by Quanterix Corp. and an independent company and presented at the recent Alzheimer’s Association international conference.” .
Quanterix QTRX Shares,
it fell 1.5% on Wednesday and then fell 9.2% on Thursday.
B. Riley analyst Mayank Mamtani backed Cassava, saying he believed there were “numerous inconsistencies in the allegations,” and recommended buying the shares for weakness. Mamtani reiterated his $ 145 buy and share rating.
FactSet, MarketWatch
Prior to Friday’s opening, Quanterix released its own statement, acknowledging that Cassava had previously hired its Accelerator lab to perform sample testing based on blind samples provided by Cassava.
But: “Quanterix or its employees did not interpret the test results or prepare the data graphs presented by Cassava at the International Alzheimer’s Association (AAIC) Conference in July 2021 or otherwise.”
This helped boost Quanterix shares, which closed 9.4% at $ 50.30 on Friday, to regain most of what it had lost the previous two days.
Quanterix’s statement caused Cassava’s shares to plummet in the early hours of Friday, to reach its intraday low shortly after 11 a.m.
Then the cassava counterpointed. The company said it conducted the phase 2b clinical study, while Quanterix’s “sole responsibility” was to test the samples, specifically to measure p-tau levels in plasma samples.
“To ensure data integrity, it is an industry standard practice to keep people who generate data separate from people who analyze data,” said Remi Barbier, Cassava’s chief executive. “It simply came to our notice then. Anything different is a distortion of the facts. “
Despite the recent weakness, Cassava shares have continued to increase by 755.4% to date, while Quanterix shares have exceeded 8.2% and the S&P 500 SPX index,
has gained 20.1%.