How is it possible to spend tens of billions of dollars developing drugs to treat a serious disease that affects millions of people, and yet end up with something that does not work? This is a mystery that has bedevilled Alzheimer’s research for years.

A new review of the evidence has concluded that the leading class of Alzheimer’s drugs “ probably result in little to no difference” in a range of measures, including reducing dementia severity. This finding was quickly used to further justify the NHS’s decision two years ago not to fund these drugs.

These findings are disappointing, not just for researchers and drug companies, but also for the tens of millions of people and their families suffering from the effects of a devastating disease.

Medical research is often reported through success stories, but Alzheimer’s disease has remained stubbornly resistant to the development of life-changing breakthroughs. This has not gone unnoticed. A couple of years ago, investigative journalists uncovered significant fraud in important studies underpinning some of the science behind the leading Alzheimer’s drugs.

While this fraud is not solely responsible for the lack of progress in Alzheimer’s research, it does reveal how vested interests can distort science and how commercial interests can sometimes override indications that a specific approach may not actually be working. It also reveals...

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