After a generation of failures, the drug industry has pivoted to its next-best idea for treating Alzheimer’s disease. But a troubling string of clinical trial results suggests that the latest approach to the devastating disease might go the way of its forebears, continuing decades of frustration for patients and scientists.
Over the past year, three clinical trials involving two similar medicines have been halted early, two because a drug was clearly not working and a third because the treatment came with worrying safety concerns.
Those setbacks underline a years-old worry in Alzheimer’s: With Eli Lilly, Biogen, and Novartis all pressing forward with similar drugs, is pharma throwing good money after bad?
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