Cassava Sciences Announces Positive Cognition Data With Simufilam in Alzheimer’s Disease
- Simufilam Significantly Improves Cognition in Patients with Alzheimer’s in Interim Analysis of Open-label Study at 9 Months
- Cognition Improved 3.0 Points on ADAS-Cog at 9 Months (p<0.001)
- Cognitive Improvements Track with Biomarker Improvements
- No Behavior Disorders in Over 50% of Patients
- No Safety Issues
- Improvements in Cognition, Biomarkers and Behavior Suggest Highly Encouraging Treatment Effects
- Oral Presentation at AAIC Today
In a clinical study funded by the
“We are very pleased with the overall consistency of data,” said
Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease. Cognition will always decline over time. In patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease, cognition scores decline over 4 points on ADAS-Cog over 9 months with over 90% certainty, as reported by the science literature1.
Simufilam improved ADAS-Cog scores in 66% of patients at 9 months. An additional 22% of patients declined less than reported in the science literature at 9 months. Cognition outcomes suggest simufilam’s treatment effects were broad-based.
Alzheimer’s is often accompanied by behaviors disorders, such as anxiety, agitation or delusions. These may become more frequent as disease progresses. Simufilam reduced dementia-related behavior at 9 months on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), a clinical tool widely used to measure changes in dementia-related behavior.
- At baseline, 34% of study subjects had no neuropsychiatric symptoms.
- At month 6, 38% of study subjects had no neuropsychiatric symptoms.
- At month 9, over 50% of study subjects had no neuropsychiatric symptoms.
The safety profile of simufilam in the interim analysis is consistent with prior human studies. There were no drug-related serious adverse events. Adverse events were mild and transient.
“Today’s data with simufilam suggests disease modification,” added
In
This press release is contemporaneous with another press release titled, “Cassava Sciences Announce Positive Biomarker Data with Simufilam in Alzheimer’s Disease”, which reports simufilam significantly improved all measured biomarkers of disease, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation (p<0.00001) following 6 months of open-label treatment.
About Today’s Oral Presentation at AAIC
Today’s AAIC presentation can be accessed on the ‘Investors’ page of the Company’s website: https://www.CassavaSciences.com
About the Open-label Study
In
Next Steps
About Simufilam
Simufilam (sim-uh-FILL-am) is a proprietary, small molecule (oral) drug that restores the normal shape and function of altered filamin A (FLNA), a scaffolding protein, in the brain. Altered FLNA in the brain disrupts the normal function of neurons, leading to Alzheimer’s pathology, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. The underlying science for simufilam is published in peer-reviewed journals, including
Simufilam and SavaDx were both developed in-house.
About Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that destroys memory and thinking skills. As of 2020, there were approximately 50 million people worldwide living with dementia, a figure expected to increase to 150 million by 2050.2 The annual global cost of dementia is now above $1 trillion, according to Alzheimer’s
About
Cassava Sciences’ mission is to discover and develop innovations for chronic, neurodegenerative conditions. Over the past 10 years,
For More Information Contact:
eschoen@CassavaSciences.com
or (512) 501-2450
Cassava Sciences’ open-label study of simufilam in Alzheimer’s disease is funded by clinical research grant #AG065152 from the
The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, relating to: the treatment or diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease; the status of current and future clinical studies with simufilam, including the interpretation of interim analyses of open-label study results; plans to conduct additional interim analyses of an open-label study and the timing thereof; inherent limitations of the ADAS-Cog testing batteries; expectations regarding convergence of biomarker and cognition data, and treatment benefits of simufilam; our intention to initiate a Phase 3 clinical program with simufilam and the timing, enrollment, duration and other details thereof; verbal commentaries made by our employees; and potential benefits, if any, of our product candidates. These statements may be identified by words such as “may,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “expect,” “would”, “forecast,” “intend,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” and other words and terms of similar meaning.
Drug development involves a high degree of risk, and historically only a small number of research and development programs result in commercialization of a product. Clinical results from our earlier-stage clinical trials may not be indicative of full results or results from later-stage or larger scale clinical trials and do not ensure regulatory approval. You should not place undue reliance on these statements or any scientific data we present or publish. Such statements are based largely on our current expectations and projections about future events.
Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to, those risks relating to the ability to conduct or complete clinical studies on expected timelines, to demonstrate the specificity, safety, efficacy or potential health benefits of our product candidates, the severity and duration of health care precautions given the COVID-19 pandemic, any unanticipated impacts of the pandemic on our business operations, and including those described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
For further information regarding these and other risks related to our business, investors should consult our filings with the
1 Disease Progression Meta-analysis Model in Alzheimer’s disease (Ito, et al.,
2
Source: Cassava Sciences, Inc.