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In February, pharmaceutical companies Roche and Eli Lilly announced that two experimental drugs they had developed for Alzheimer’s disease had failed in clinical trials. Roche’s drug, gantenerumab, and Eli Lilly’s solanezumab joined more than 100 other potential Alzheimer’s drugs that have flopped, including aducanumab, a much-heralded drug from Biogen. In March 2019, Biogen announced that it had halted two clinical trials of the drug early after an interim analysis showed they weren’t working, but the company has since changed course, saying it intends to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration based on a new analysis of the data. (Aschwanden, 4/4)

The prevailing theory of how to treat Alzheimer’s disease endured its 1,001st cut on Thursday, as results from a lengthy clinical trial showed that reducing toxic plaques in the brain had no effect on slowing cognitive decline. While the disappointing result is only the latest in a metronomic series of failures, it could have implications for the drug industry’s only ostensible success: a plaque-targeting treatment from Biogen soon to undergo Food and Drug Administration review. (Garde, 4/2)

The Nobel Prize-winning discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors has changed how cancer is treated. These drugs “unblock” the immune system’s normally protective pathways that prevent T cells from overreacting and potentially harming healthy cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors work by “uninhibiting” a cancer patient’s T cells to attack his or her tumor. (Davis and Flechtner, 4/6)