TLDR
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Examines why Alzheimer’s disease has resisted decades of research and drug development efforts despite massive investment.
Key Takeaways
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Alzheimer’s remains one of medicine’s hardest unsolved problems, with most late-stage clinical trials failing to show meaningful benefit.
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The dominant amyloid hypothesis has driven billions in funding, yet amyloid-clearing drugs have had limited real-world impact on cognitive decline.
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Diagnosis typically comes late in disease progression, complicating trials that may need to intervene years earlier.
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Complexity of neurodegeneration means single-target drug strategies may be structurally insufficient for a multi-pathway disease.
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Slow trial timelines, aging populations as the primary cohort, and irreversible neural damage create compounding research constraints.
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