Report that Dr Hoau-Yan Wang was removed from CUNY’s website is UNCONFIRMED

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Report that Dr Hoau-Yan Wang was removed removed from CUNY’s website is UNCONFIRMED.

In response, the company questioned the story and what the story said were the investigation’s findings. Cassava Sciences (SAVA) stock was down 12% on Friday.

Science reported that an investigation by the City University of New York accused Hoau-Yan Wang — a neuroscientist who is a faculty member there — of “scientific misconduct” across 20 research papers. The publication said that many of those papers “provided key support” for simufilam, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug that Cassava has been working on.

Science said the investigation also found that Lindsay Burns, a senior vice president for neuroscience at Cassava and a co-author on some of the research, “bears primary or partial responsibility for some of the possible misconduct or scientific errors.”

The investigation was launched following allegations that Wang “falsified” blot data used in the research in question, according to a report summarizing the inquiry that Science said it obtained from an anonymous source. The report said Wang disputed the allegations. But the report said it couldn’t objectively evaluate the allegations due to what it said was Wang’s failure to provide original data.

Cassava Sciences, in a statement dated Friday, said the alleged “misconduct” was related only to record-keeping issues at the university, and said the report “makes no findings of data manipulation.” The company tried to link the matter to a short-selling campaign that began two years ago and said CUNY turned down requests for information and “offers of assistance” from Cassava. 

A long-awaited report by the City University of New York (CUNY) accused one of its faculty members, neuroscientist Hoau-Yan Wang, of egregious misconduct concerning 20 research papers — defined as workplace behavior so outrageous, dangerous, or illegal that an employer cannot reasonably expect to correct it through progressive discipline.

According to the 50-page document obtained by Science, Mr Wang could not provide original data to disprove allegations he had manipulated images in his research papers, many of which provided critical support for the Alzheimer’s drug simufilam’s jump from the lab into clinical studies. Mr Wang is a long-standing collaborator with biotech company Cassava Sciences, whose work on the experimental Alzheimer’s drug simufilam has been heavily criticized.

Simufilam is a drug in tablet form that claims to prevent the buildup of amyloid proteins in the brain that are a hallmark sign of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Along with Wang, Cassava’s senior vice president for neuroscience Lindsay Burns is also being deemed at fault. Burns is a co-author alongside Wang on some of the papers in question.

The CUNY investigative committee found numerous signs images in Wang’s research papers were used multiple times, cut and pasted, and altered, ‘thereby presenting falsified or fabricated biochemical data.