Have there been improvements in Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery over the past 5 years?

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most important neurodegenerative disorder with a global cost worldwide of over $700 billion. Pharmacological treatment accounts for 10–20% of direct costs; no new drugs have been approved during the past 15 years; and the available medications are not cost-effective.Areas covered: A massive scrutiny of AD-related PubMed publications (ps)(2013–2017) identified 42,053ps of which 8,380 (19.60%) were associated with AD treatments. The most prevalent pharmacological categories included neurotransmitter enhancers (11.38%), multi-target drugs (2.45%), anti-Amyloid agents (13.30%), anti-Tau agents (2.03%), natural products and derivatives (25.58%), novel drugs (8.13%), novel targets (5.66%), other (old) drugs (11.77%), anti-inflammatory drugs (1.20%), neuroprotective peptides (1.25%), stem cell therapy(1.85%), nanocarriers/nanotherapeutics (1.52%), and others (<1% each).Expert opinion: Unsuccessful outcomes in AD therapeutics are attributed to pathogenic misc...