When Cassava Sciences Inc.’s president and CEO, Remi Barbier, opened up the interim analysis of the company’s open-label study for Alzheimer’s disease candidate simufilam, he was more than pleased with the results but found himself an audience of one. His researchers had been confident about the results before the data were tallied. “I was ecstatic,” he told Bioworld. “No one’s seen this type of improvement in Alzheimer’s. But our scientists said, ‘See, I told you so.’ It was not my expectation.” The new data showed six months’ treatment with the oral, small molecule not just stabilized but improved cognition and behavior scores in AD patients.