After A Big Failure, Scientists And Patients Hunt For A New Type Of Alzheimer's Drug

Scientists are setting a new course in their quest to treat Alzheimer's disease.

The shift comes out of necessity. A series of expensive failures with experimental drugs aimed at a toxic protein called amyloid-beta have led to a change in approach.

The most recent disappointment came in March, when drugmaker Biogen and its partner Eisai announced they were halting two large clinical trials of an amyloid drug called aducanumab.

"It was like being punched in the stomach," says Phil Gutis, 57, an Alzheimer's patient in one of the trials. "Participating in this trial, it gave me hope for the future."

Gutis, who once was a reporter for The New York Times and worked as an advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union, had hoped the experimental drug would preserve some of his remaining memories.

"I'm just being erased," he says.

The day before the aducanumab trial ended, Gutis had been leafing through pictures of his dog, Abe, a Jack Russell terrier who died last year. He was trying to remember the companion who'd shared his life for 12 years.