Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[growingpain]

"Powerful science?"

Had a quick read of the PR and the underlying statistics appear as flawed as any other statistical analysis they have presented to us in the last few years. Unless the pathways are pre-specified, the differences in the two groups could just be an outcome of multiple comparisons. By comparing the differences for a very large number of pathways, it is likely to find some as large ones as the ones reported in the PR. As a result, unless they control for this type of bias, the reported p-values are meaningless and may not be replicable in other samples.

The heatmap probably has no scientific value too and would not be surprised if for other "potential pathways," one observes larger differences for the placebo groups. Again, unless these pathways are pre-specified, there are no "super-responders" here.