Two concussion drug companies backed by Brett Favre and involved in a welfare fraud case overstated their NFL connections and exaggerated the known effectiveness of their drugs during efforts to raise money, according to interviews and documents. More:
As well, court filings show the companies and their founder, Jake VanLandingham, faced substantial debts over the past several years, even as VanLandingham was pressing potential investors to help get his drugs to market.
Six people were arrested and charged in 2020 as part of what the state called a"multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme." They included Mississippi's welfare director and the head of a nonprofit, both of whom have entered guilty pleas. An NFL spokesperson wrote in an email,"The league office was contacted by this organization but provided no funding or any resources in support of its efforts." The spokesperson added that neither Miller nor Sills was an advisory member or associate for Prevacus, and the league was unaware of any teams using samples of PresolMD's cream.
Under the heading,"Milestones Achieved to Date," the document also says that PresolMD has"provided product samples and cultivated relationships with 6 NFL Active Teams." Elsewhere, under the heading,"Sales & Marketing Strategy & Financial Projections," the document says PresolMD is working in"partnership with the NFL Affiliate Groups."
A spokesperson for the NFLPA said"there is no affiliation with that company or person," adding,"If this person is representing that they have our support, that's false." The idea appeared to stem from research VanLandingham and others had conducted several years earlier at Emory University. While working as a postdoctoral researcher, VanLandingham was the lead author on two scientific papers -- one in 2006, the other in 2008 -- that described how progesterone and a related steroid had shown positive results on concussed rats.
VanLandingham said Favre initially was issued stock options for joining Prevacus'"Sports Advisory Board." Since then, Favre has become"a fairly large shareholder" in the company, VanLandingham said."After you have a concussion, you have temporary energy crisis in the brain," VanLandingham told WDAM-TV in Mississippi in 2014.
Within months of that appearance, according to the Mississippi lawsuit, Favre was urging VanLandingham to contact Nancy New to get funds from the state's Department of Human Services. Favre, the lawsuit said, let VanLandingham know New had"previously provided substantial funds on his behalf." In reality, there was no research on humans to suggest anything of the sort. In fact, beyond the research he conducted at Emory, VanLandingham hadn't been a part of any published studies related to the drug's efficacy, according to a search of PubMed. And while the rat studies might have provided some optimism, that was a far cry from showing it would work to mitigate concussions in humans, let alone eliminate CTE.
VanLandingham told ESPN that it was never his intention to suggest the drug definitely would work, but rather that it had worked on animals and he predicted it might work on humans. He said he always made it clear the drug was yet to be approved by the FDA. Asked about the dearth of published research around Prevacus' drug, Odyssey president and CEO Mike Redmond said,"One thing that we are careful about, we have been counseled on from our patent attorneys and everybody else is that the more you publish, the less likely, or the weaker your patent position. So, I know that Prevacus was certainly concerned about protecting their patent position and not putting too much information into the public domain, and I'm of the same mindset.
"All you gotta do is take a little bit on your index finger, rub it on the left side of the trachea, then take a little bit and rub it on the right," he said."And in less than 30 minutes, that small anti-inflammatory will be in your brain, I promise. And it will be working. Yep."In fact, at that point, the drug had been tested only on dogs, and its efficacy on humans had not been assessed.
DeKosky, Weinberger and other experts expressed even more skepticism about the cream than the nasal spray, again noting the absence of any data to support the claims. During a January 2020 podcast, VanLandingham suggested PreVPro would be on the market the following month and that Prevacus' nasal spray was"probably about two years" away from going to market.
It seems unlikely that even if he were found responsible, VanLandingham would be able to pay the state. VanLandingham's compensation for selling his nasal spray drug to Odyssey is primarily in the form of stock; its value is largely predicated on the drug making it through additional clinical trials and ultimately getting to market.
Odyssey's two scientific advisers, Dr. Dallas Hack and Dr. James Kelly, did not respond to requests for comment. ESPN asked Redmond to see if they would agree to be interviewed. He said they declined. In the past week, Hack was removed from the list of advisers on Odyssey's website. Redmond said Hack's contract had ended and the company was hoping to renew him for the next set of trials.
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