What happened
Shares of Cassava Sciences (SAVA 4.77%) were up 18.7% for the week, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The clinical-stage biotech stock closed at $22.32 last week, then rose to as high as $28.65 on Thursday, the day the company announced it had finished patient dosing in one of its phase 3 trials for an Alzheimer's disease therapy. The stock is still down more than 10% so far this year.
So what
On Thursday, Cassava said it had finished patient dosing for its phase 3 trial for Simufilam on more than 125 patients with Alzheimer's disease. The study, known as the Cognition Maintenance Study (CMS), is a six-month trial designed to test the drug's safety and efficacy on patients who had already been treated with Simufilam. Basically, it is attempting to show efficacy by showing what happens when patients stop taking the therapy. The company said it plans to announce top-line data from the study in the third quarter.
The company has a lot riding on Simufilam as it only has one other therapy in its pipeline, SavaDx, a blood-based screening for Alzheimer's disease.
Now what
Though Cassava doesn't have any marketed therapies -- and no revenue -- it isn't in a bad financial situation. While it lost $24.3 million in the first quarter, it still has $187.5 million in cash as of March 31, enough to finance operations into late 2024, and it has no debt. The market for Alzheimer's therapies is huge, but it has been a notoriously difficult disease to find effective therapies for.
Interestingly, another reason the stock got a boost was that Simufilam might be effective as a cancer drug. A study in Europe, released Monday by Cassava, showed that the drug can reverse altered filamin A protein in pituitary tumor cells, leading to improved cell signaling. The data is scheduled to be presented May 13 to May 16 at the European Society of Endocrinology.
