After 15 years of failure, what can pharma offer Alzheimer's patients?

The most recent new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease was approved by European regulators in May 2002, with the US Food and Drug Administration following suit the next year.

Namenda (memantine) represented a novel type of therapy, which offered hope for improved mental function through the regulation of glutamate, a chemical involved in information processing, storage and retrieval.

But as this milestone fast recedes into memory, medical science appears no closer to reaching further breakthroughs, with researchers continuing to disagree over the fundamental causes of the disease, and the most appropriate therapeutic targets.