A scientist who conducted controversial research into a potential Alzheimer's treatment has been charged with fraud.
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted City University of New York professor Hoau-Yan Wang on charges that he falsified data to obtain nearly $16 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Wang's research has supported research into a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease and the advanced clinical trial drug simufilam. Cassava Sciences, a Texas-based pharmaceutical company that makes Simufilam, says the drug improves cognitive performance in Alzheimer's patients.
Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 6 million Americans, a number expected to double by 2050, and promising treatments are generating tremendous excitement. Cassava's stock price soars each time clinical trial results are reported.
However, some scientists have publicly criticized the drug's mechanism of action and claimed results as implausible. Some went further, accusing the company and its scientific consultant, Dr. Wang, of manipulating the results. Several journals have retracted or attached statements of concern to publications by Dr. Wang and Cassava's co-authors.
After the indictments were announced on Friday, cassava shares plummeted to their lowest price since October 2020.
Cassava founder and CEO Remi Barbier did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in a statement posted on its website, the company said Dr. Wang’s work was “related to the early development of the company’s drug candidates and diagnostic tests.”
“Dr. Wang and his former public university medical school were not involved in the company’s Phase 3 clinical trial of Simupilam,” the statement said.
A company spokesperson pointed to a September 2023 publication that it said provided “independent verification of the science.”
The investigation by the City University of New York, which the university is affiliated with, spent months trying to access Dr. Wang’s files. Ultimately, the committee concluded that Dr. Wang had been “reckless” in not keeping or providing the original data, which amounted to “serious research misconduct.”
“The university has and will continue to cooperate fully with the federal government’s investigation until the matter is resolved,” a university spokesperson said in a statement.
Dr. Wang did not respond to a request for comment on the indictment.
According to the Justice Department, Dr. Wang is accused of falsifying data on grant applications over a period of nearly eight years, ending in April 2023. Some of the grant money was used to fund Dr. Wang’s salary and research in his lab at the university.
Federal prosecutors charged Dr. Wang with multiple counts of fraud and making false statements. If convicted, he could face up to 55 years in prison.
The FBI's Washington office is investigating the case. The charges were brought in Maryland, where NIH is located.
NIH spokeswoman Renate Miles said in an emailed statement that the agency “does not discuss grant compliance reviews for specific funding awards, granting institutions, or supporting investigators.”
“But NIH takes research misconduct very seriously,” she said. “NIH promptly and carefully reviews all allegations of research misconduct that it receives.”