AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cassava Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SAVA), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court against certain individuals who a “Short and Distort” campaign against the company. The more than 150-page complaint alleges that the defendants’ disinformation campaign has caused Cassava Sciences’ stock price and market capitalization to plummet by billions of dollars and is delaying the company’s work on developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease have.

The lawsuit alleges, “The defendants prioritized personal gain over science, over patient health and over truth. The defendants saw an opportunity to manipulate a stock price and profit financially from their “short positions” by slandering a company developing a drug for people with Alzheimer’s disease, a disease affecting millions of people. The defendants took advantage of this opportunity and, while enriching themselves, caused irreparable damage to the company, its attempts to find a treatment for the disease, and the patients who awaited that treatment. The behavior of the defendants is more than shameful. It is unlawful.”

The Complaint identifies more than 1,000 false and defamatory statements made by the Defendants in filings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as “reports” and presentations that the Defendants published online or on social media. According to the complaint, “Defendants saturated the market, investors, federal agencies, testing sites and others with their false and defamatory message about cassava. Defendants had no real or legitimate concerns about cassava, its basic science, or its testing. Defendants engaged in their saturation campaign to profit based on a decline in Cassava’s stock price.”

Cassava Sciences has appointed J. Erik Connolly, Managing Chair of the Litigation Group at Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP, to represent…