Company: Cassava Sciences (SYM: SAVA)

If Dollar Tree represents a beaten-down retail recovery play, Cassava Sciences is the classic high-risk, high-reward biotech story.

The stock collapsed late last year after the company announced it would stop clinical studies of its Alzheimer’s drug, simufilam. With sentiment crushed, shares plummeted into penny-stock territory, trading near $2 per share.

But just recently, a massive insider purchase has turned heads.

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  President and CEO Remi Barbier bought 237,941 shares for roughly $534,743.

  
  


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  The shares were purchased between September 18–19, at prices ranging from $2.13 to $2.29.

  
  

Such a large, open-market purchase from the company’s top executive signals strong belief in the company’s pipeline and future direction.

Why Insiders Are Buying

Cassava is pivoting its focus to a new program targeting TSC-related epilepsy (tuberous sclerosis complex), a rare disease with limited treatment options. According to the company, two encouraging animal model studies—one at Yale and another with the TSC Alliance—support simufilam’s potential as a novel therapy.

Management recently announced that, following positive preclinical data, it plans to advance simufilam into a clinical study in 1H 2026.

While Alzheimer’s remains an incredibly challenging therapeutic area, this new direction may offer fresh opportunities for the company to deliver value.

Why SAVA Could See Upside

1. 
   

   Massive insider confidence – Few things scream confidence like a CEO buying nearly a quarter-million shares after a brutal decline.

   
   


2. 
   

   Rare disease focus – Targeting niche conditions like TSC-related epilepsy can sometimes fast-track approvals and generate strong pricing power.

   
   


3. 
   

   Speculative upside – At such depressed valuations, even modest clinical progress could send the stock sharply higher.

   
   

Of course, biotech investing comes with substantial risk. Drug development timelines are long, regulatory hurdles are high, and trial results are unpredictable. Still, for risk-tolerant investors, following insider buying at beaten-down levels can sometimes lead to outsized returns.