New drugs now on the horizon may ease the onslaught of Alzheimer's, that scourge of old age, which robs otherwise healthy people of the ability to continue in daily life, and which bankrupts and dispirits families overwhelmed by the need to constantly care for loved ones no longer able to care for themselves.

Care for victims of the disease is staggeringly expensive, costing individuals and the government many billions of dollars annually.

Part of the problem is that causes for the disease remain elusive to pinpoint — and may be multifactorial. After nearly four decades of research, Dr. Howard Fillit, chief science officer and founding executive director of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, recently told WebMD, “There are many ways that (brain) cells die.”
While there may be no "cure" at present, several drugs do offer some promise to slow or mitigate damage, especially those combating the formation of β-amyloid plaques in the brain, which many researchers think could be the culprit behind Alzheimer's

Biogen's aducanumab and Eli Lilly's solanezumab are now in ongoing phase 3 trials. So far, however, solanezumab has failed phase 3 once and aducanumab has yet to pass its own trial, according to the investment site, Motley Fool.

Both the Lilly and the Biogen drugs are antibodies that fight β-amyloid. A third antibody, Eisai's BAN2401 is in phase two trials. That company has partnered with Biogen.

Another approach is to block the formation of BACE, a "cutting enzyme" that chops longer proteins into β-amyloid. This, in turn, would potentially, cut down on the amount of that substance in the body, which would reduce the progress of the disease.

Data collection should be done by summer of 2016, with a partial analysis expected before April 2016. What may come of this is an "FDA green light for a combination trial with E2609 and aducanumab at a lower, safer dosage," advised the investment site.

Partners AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly also have a combo including a BACE inhibitor, AZD3293/LY3314814, which they are slated to report on in Q2 2016.

To date, 244 drugs have been tested in an effort to combat the ailment, according to a 2014 paper on Alzheimer's Research Therapy by Dr. Jeffrey Cummings. "Many failures in AD drug development have occurred, with both small molecules and immunotherapies failing to show a drug/placebo difference or having unacceptable toxicity," he stated at that time, noting that the problem of Alzheimer's is exploding. "It is estimated that currently 44 million victims of AD dementia exist in the world, and that this will grow to more than 100 million cases by 2050."

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