Joseph H Pratt
9 Northwoods
Radnor, PA 19087
610 517 4445
jhpratt2@icloud.com
Linda P Henry
The Boston Globe
53 State St Lobby 2
Boston, MA, 02109-3208
May 19, 2022
Dear Linda ,
I am writing to make you aware of some very troubling conduct by one of your Stat News employees, Adam Feuerstein. On May 10th, a peer reviewed paper was presented on DCVax-L (a drug developed by Northwest Biotherapeutics) at the prestigious New York Academy of Sciences. This drug is a vaccine targeted at glioblastoma multiforme, the most deadly form of brain cancer in which 50% of newly diagnosed patients die within about one year. A distinguished neuro-surgeon presented the results of a near 15 year study of DCVax-L which showed that DCVax-L increased survival in a very meaningful way with a stunning p-value of <0.002. The presenter stated that he felt that this represented a major breakthough in the treatment of GBM and proclaimed the trial a major success.
Shortly after the presentation, Feuerstein published an article that falsely and malevolently stated that the trial had failed because it did not achieve statistical significance on a secondary endpoint of progression free survival. This was irrelevant as overall survival is the gold standard endpoint for oncology clinical trials. Because of a phenomenon called pseudoprogression it was widely anticipated that progression free survival would not be reached and that this was a meaningless endpoint. His article was quickly and widely circulated by hedge funds, who were short the stock, to Wall Street trading desks leading to a dramatic collapse in the stock price. For the close on May 9th, the stock was at $1.80 and then plunged to a low price of $0.38 on May 10th. Some 77 million shares traded that day and the only negative news was Feuerstein’s false claim that the trial had failed.
Feuerstein has targeted Northwest and DCVax-L for over 8 years with false and misleading tweets and recently with articles at StatNews. He has repeatedly claimed that the trial failed even before the data was unblinded and has accused management of various types of criminal behavior. His vehemence is stunning and unsupported by any facts or evidence. I know of a collection of over 500 negative comments that he has made that demonstrate extreme bias and malevolence; these are all available for your review.
I am also troubled by reports of reprehensible conduct by Feuerstein immediately prior to the May 10th presentation. It is alleged by a whistleblower that Feuerstein aggressively tried to block the May 10th presentation. The originally scheduled presenter was Linda Liau, MD, PhD. She is the co-inventer of DCVax-L and one of two lead investigators on the trial. She is associated with UCLA David Geffen as the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery; Professor, Department of Neurosurgery; and Director, Brain Tumor Program. It is alleged that Feuerstein called Dr. Liau numerous time prior to May 10 and also the press office at UCLA. He is alleged to have stated that he was an investigative reporter with a widely respected news organization. He is alleged to have threatened that if Dr. Liau made the presentation at New York Academy that he was prepared to publish stories that Northwest was engaged in fraudulent activity in the conduct of the trial and that management was guilty of criminal stock manipulation. He said that if Dr. Liau presented that he would ruin her reputation and that of UCLA. These charges are a complete fabrication. Dr, Liau did not present. She is a very sweet, non-confrontational lady and was badly shaken by Feuerstein’s aggressive and coercive tactics.
Feuerstein used the same tactics on the New York Academy of Sciences. However, they were aware of Feuerstein’s reputation as a collaborator with certain hedge funds. After his approach, he was reprimanded for his behavior and banned from attending the presentation either in person or virtually. We urge you to aggressively follow up on these allegations to ascertain if they are correct. We believe them to be, but at this time we do not have hard evidence. However, in a matter of days we hope to have such. Feuerstein appears to have gone far beyond the accepted rules of reporting by playing a major role in the complete collapse of the stock and leading to hundreds of millions of profits for hedge funds who shorted the stock. I am also morally appalled that he would go to such efforts to prevent the approval of a very badly needed new drug for glioblastoma.
CC: John Henry
