A cure for Alzheimer’s Disease would bring relief to thousands of families the world over. And for healthcare stock Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA), it might have been just the thing that made its mark on the pharmaceutical market. However, the news proved disappointing to investors, as Cassava Sciences stock lost over 14% at the time of writing.
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Cassava rolled out the results of a study on simufilam, a drug which—in a “small proof of concept study”—showed 38% lower rates of decline against a placebo. Dubbed the Cognition Maintenance Study, 157 patients tried simufilam in oral presentations for a full year. The patients in question had mild-to-moderate levels of Alzheimer’s, and those who tried the drug ended up with a 0.9-point decline in ADAS-Cog, one of the key measures of Alzheimer’s severity. A placebo, meanwhile, produced a 1.5-point decline.
So, what happened? Sure, it’s no cure, but if Alzheimer’s is caught early enough, simufilam might be able to slow the rate of decline such that the patient will ultimately die before the disease can reach its peak. Not really a win, granted, but not exactly a loss either. The problem is that simufilam didn’t perform as well as others in the field, like Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) and its Donanemab treatment.
A look at the last five trading days for Cassava Sciences stock shows the level of impact today’s news had on it. SAVA stock was on an upward cant before the news about simufilam hit, which sent share prices reeling downward. Prices recovered for a bit, but ultimately much of that energy was lost as Wednesday went on.
