Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) stock jumped 5% overnight after director Richard Barry revealed he acquired shares on behalf of his trust.
Barry paid $16.80 for each of the 1,905 shares on Aug. 21. He then paid $16.60 for another 16,571 shares the following day. He now owns 293,477 shares out of 41.97 million outstanding.
Cassava opened at $18.38 on this morning, with a market capitalization of about $790 million. Barry became an independent director in 2021.
What’s With Cassava?
Cassava has been testing an Alzheimer’s drug called Simufilam, aimed at fixing abnormalities in a protein called filamin A, or FLNA. InvestorPlace’s Louis Navillier profiled it last year as “a biotech-sector runner that can jump at any moment.”
A New Yorker profile on corporate whistleblowers, published the month before that call, focused heavily on Cassava and CEO Remi Barbier. The profile called the drug “simulated flim flam.”
Before launching Simufilam for testing, Cassava was called Pain Therapeutics and was working on an opioid called Remoxy that never reached the market.
Cassava reported a loss of $28.7 million, 63 cents per share, for the quarter ending June 30. It had $168.4 million in cash and equivalents at the end of the period.
While releasing those numbers, Cassava said it had 1,587 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s enrolled in its Phase 3 Simufilam study. It planned to complete its enrollment of 1,750 patients in the fourth quarter. A Cassava press release in July said a six-month proof-of-concept study showed the drug slowed cognitive decline by 38% over a placebo.
Unlike Leqembi from Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB), which regulators recently approved, Simufilam targets a kinase called mTOR that is overactive in brains with the disease.
SAVA Stock: What Happens Next?
Results are still at least a year away from Cassava’s Phase 3 study. It seems to have enough cash on hand to reach results but would then need help getting to market.
If the results are good, however, that help is certain.
As of this writing, Dana Blankenhorn did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
