Nader Pourhassan, former CEO of CytoDyn, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison following his conviction for securities fraud and insider trading. The Department of Justice announced that Pourhassan made misleading statements about leronlimab, an experimental antibody developed by CytoDyn for HIV and later COVID-19, between 2018 and 2021. These actions were intended to artificially raise the company's stock price and attract investors.
During this period, Pourhassan sold approximately 4.8 million shares he owned in the company, generating $4.4 million in personal profit. In addition to his prison sentence, the court ordered him to pay more than $5.3 million in restitution and surrender over $4.4 million.
U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes for the District of Maryland stated: “The former top executive ‘exploited a deadly public health crisis to intentionally deceive investors and the public out of millions—all so that he could enrich himself.’”
Leronlimab was initially under development as a treatment for HIV before CytoDyn shifted its focus toward COVID-19 during the pandemic. However, after failing a Phase III clinical trial in March 2021—where it did not show significant improvement in survival rates for hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared with placebo—the FDA issued a statement in May 2021 saying “the data currently available do not support the clinical benefit of leronlimab for the treatment of COVID-19.” Despite these results, Pourhassan publicly claimed at the time: “We believe these results are the best results ever achieved for this population in a Phase 3 clinical trial.”
A federal jury in Maryland found Pourhassan guilty on multiple counts—including four counts of securities fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and three counts of insider trading—in December 2024. Alongside him was Kazem Kazempour, then CEO of Amarex Clinical Research—a contract research organization that conducted CytoDyn’s studies—who was also convicted but will face a new trial after his convictions were vacated.
Pourhassan led CytoDyn from September 2012 until January 2022 when he was dismissed by the board as they sought new leadership for leronlimab’s commercialization.
