Cassava Sciences founder and CEO Remi Barbier is resigning amid two federal probes into the company, which said it’s looking for a new leader.
Remi BarbierThe news, announced Wednesday, marks the end of Barbier’s 26-year run leading the embattled biotech originally known as Pain Therapeutics. He plans to stay with the company for two more months “without duties or responsibilities,” Cassava said. Replacing him for now as “principal executive officer” and executive chairman is Rick Barry, a board director since June 2021 who also serves on the board of Sarepta Therapeutics.
“While our priority remains the development of a potentially effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the board has a steadfast commitment to doing so with transparency, accountability, and highest ethical business practices,” Barry said in a statement.
Rick BarryLindsay Burns, SVP of neuroscience, is also leaving Cassava, effective immediately, though she’ll work as a roving consultant helping with research and regulatory filings. The company has the option to extend the consulting role for an additional year. Barbier and Burns are married, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Cassava is in legal hot water. Hoau-Yan Wang, a longtime scientific collaborator of the company who helped discover Cassava’s lead asset, was federally indicted last month for allegedly defrauding the National Institutes of Health. The Department of Justice alleges that Wang fabricated the data that helped land $16 million in NIH grants. The company has said it’s cooperating with ongoing investigations underway by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the DOJ.
The federal government’s allegations follow similar complaints and findings from Wang’s employer, the City University of New York.
After Wang’s indictment, Cassava disclosed that two senior employees were included in the federal investigations. That prompted the company to launch its own internal inquiry, with an ad hoc investigations committee on the board tasked with overseeing outside counsel’s review.