The new year has seen major setbacks for the already challenging field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with confirmation of three significant drug development failures plus a major pharma company exiting the area entirely. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., and the only one of the top 10 that cannot be prevented or treated. Effective drug treatment is desperately needed, but remains elusive. The failure rate for potential AD drugs, including ones that have reached the final stages of development, is notoriously high: No new drugs have entered the market since Namenda in 2004, and the failure rate in clinical trials is almost 100%.