Earlier this year, I cautioned investors to tread lightly with potential Alzheimer's disease drugs. I sure hope they listened. Medivation
Medivation and partner Pfizer
Dimebon is still being tested in a pair of clinical trials, in combination with Eisai's and Pfizer's Aricept and Forest Labs'
For Pfizer, the results aren't nearly as disastrous. Assuming Dimebon remains a flop, Pfizer will be out the $225 million it put up to gain the rights, and 60% of the costs associated with the trial. But the company has eight other drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease in the works. Will all of them work? Highly unlikely, but I'd rather have nine shots on goal than one. Investors won't have to wait too long for the next results, either; the first phase 3 trials for bapineuzumab, partnered with Johnson & Johnson
Today's flop, combined with earlier ones from drugmakers like Myriad Genetics