A small firm checks in at a big partner’s complex

Abstract

The controversial approval of Biogen’s Aduhelm earlier this month spotlights the challenges for big companies developing antibody treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The US Food and Drug Administration signed off on the drug, but many neurologists were unimpressed, if not frustrated, with the approval, viewing the antibody’s impact as marginal at best and the FDA’s vetting as substandard. Recent results from a Phase 2 clinical trial of a small-molecule Alzheimer’s disease treatment developed by the tiny biotech firm Cassava Sciences, however, suggest a new approach to halting the progress of the seemingly intractable neurodegenerative disease. “Clinical data around our compound is very promising,” says Remi Barbier, CEO of Austin, Texas–based Cassava, which Barbier founded as Pain Therapeutics in 1998. “If the data continues to replicate, then we are looking at a monster, monster commercial manufacturing opportunity.” Something of a David among pharma Goliaths, Cassava has signed with a giant among contract