aibioCassava Sciences (now Filana Therapeutics) agrees to $31.25 million class action settlement
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Cassava and Chief Financial Officer Eric J. Schoen accepted a mediator's recommendation to settle the consolidated securities class action for $31.25 million. Remi Barbier and Lindsay Burns did not sign the term sheet but would receive releases once the court approves.
Key facts
- Company
- Filana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLNA)
- News type
- Legal
- Primary source
- FILANA THERAPEUTICS, INC. Form 8-K filed December 23, 2025 (SEC EDGAR)
Cassava Sciences, Inc. said in a Form 8-K filed December 23, 2025 that it and its chief financial officer, Eric J. Schoen, will pay $31.25 million to settle a consolidated securities class action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The filing names two other defendants, Remi Barbier and Lindsay Burns, who did not sign the settlement term sheet. The company says the settlement is not an admission of fault or wrongdoing. Preliminary and final approval by the court are still required, according to the filing.
The lawsuits and the defendants
Between August 27, 2021 and October 26, 2021, four putative class action lawsuits were filed in the Western District of Texas. They allege violations of the federal securities laws by the company and certain named officers, and they seek unspecified compensatory damages on behalf of a purported class of purchasers of the company's securities. On June 30, 2022, a federal judge consolidated the four cases into one, the Consolidated Securities Action, and appointed a lead plaintiff and a lead counsel.
The parties then went to mediation under Local Rule CV-88(g) before David M. Murphy. The class covers purchasers or acquirers of common stock or call options, and sellers of put options, between September 14, 2020 and October 12, 2023, subject to certain exclusions. The 8-K does not describe the statements the complaints challenge, so the filing does not say what the plaintiffs contend was misleading.
How the settlement came about
On December 19, 2025, at the mediator's direction, the plaintiffs filed a Final ADR Report with the court. The report says Cassava and Schoen, called the Cassava Defendants, and the plaintiffs accepted a double-blind mediator's recommendation. That recommendation is reflected in a binding term sheet under which the Cassava Defendants will pay $31.25 million for a complete settlement of all claims that were or could be asserted, in exchange for full releases.
Barbier and Burns, called the Non-Settling Defendants, did not sign the term sheet. Cassava indemnifies them. Under the term sheet they are entitled to full releases along with Cassava once the court grants final approval, and the plaintiffs will dismiss the claims against them with prejudice. So the company is funding releases for two people it has agreed to indemnify, as the filing describes.
The mediator has interpreted the term sheet as a complete and enforceable settlement between the Cassava Defendants and the class. The mediator left one question to the court: whether later-filed securities class actions should be consolidated into the Consolidated Securities Action.
Money and next steps
The term sheet says the $31.25 million is expected to be placed into escrow in January 2026. The company reserved a loss contingency of the same $31.25 million in the second quarter of 2025 for the case, so the cost was on its books months before the December term sheet. The filing does not say how the company will fund the payment beyond the escrow.
The parties intend to prepare a formal stipulation of settlement and a motion for preliminary approval. After the court grants preliminary approval and class members have a notice and review period, the plaintiffs will seek final approval. Until then, the settlement has not been approved by the court.
The company behind the case
In its annual report filed March 3, 2025, Cassava described itself as a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Austin, Texas. Its lead drug candidate, simufilam, was in Phase 3 studies for Alzheimer's disease through 2024, when all ongoing clinical trials of simufilam in Alzheimer's disease were discontinued. The report says substantially all of its research and development effort went into simufilam, while SavaDx, its investigational blood-based diagnostic, accounted for less than 1% of research and development expenses for the periods presented.
On February 26, 2025, the company entered into a license agreement with Yale University to support development and commercialization of simufilam for TSC-related epilepsy. The company's lead drug is therefore being pursued through a license in a new indication, not in the discontinued Alzheimer's trials.
The 8-K lists the company's common stock under the symbol SAVA on the Nasdaq Capital Market.