According to a US study, more than 99% of drug trials for Alzheimer’s disease during the past decade have failed.
There is an urgent need to increase the number of potential therapies being investigated, say US scientists.
Only one new medicine has been approved since 2004, they report in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.
Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, in Las Vegas, and colleagues, examined a public website that records clinical trials.
Between 2002 and 2012, they found 99.6% of trials of drugs aimed at preventing, curing or improving the symptoms of Alzheimer’s had failed or been discontinued.
This compares with a failure rate of 81% for cancer drugs.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
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