This year was supposed to herald the arrival of the first drug to modify the progression of Alzheimer’s. Instead, there were failed clinical trials - one for a highly anticipiated medication shelved last month from Myriad Genetics and one for another drug aimed at arresting the disease. The arrival of such a drug is now unlikely before 2010, if then, The Los Angeles Times writes.

In other words, Alzheimer’s disease research is at a crossroads. While technology to detect the condition early is advancing rapidly, there is still no way to halt or reverse the disease, a puzzle that will be on display at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease getting under way today in Chicago.

Five meds are currently available, but they only treat symptoms, such as memory problems and mental confusion, not cure, halt or even slow the disease. And a review published earlier this year in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluded the drugs produce few, if any, meaningful benefits. “It was definitely a disappointment but not entirely surprising,” Jeff Cummings, a UCLA professor of psychiatry who runs the UCLA Alzheimer Disease Center, ells the paper. “All of us who work in the field know that, in general, Alzheimer’s disease has proved to be very difficult to treat.”

Just the same, several study results will generate interest this week, particularly a mid-stage trial from Elan and Wyeth, which are developing bapineuzumab, a drug that’s supposed to clear plaques from the brain. Phase III results are expected in 2010. More Phase II details are expected today.

What else is in the offing?

* Another medication targeting gamma secretase, this time by blocking its production, has just entered a 21-month trial by Lilly;

* An antihistamine, Dimebon, discovered more than two decades ago, has completed a phase-two trial in Russia that the FDA has accepted as one of two necessary “pivotal trials” that must be performed to prove a medication’s effectiveness, the Times writes. A study published this month in the Lancet by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that patients taking the drug experienced improved thinking processes and ability to function and that the benefits improved over time. The drug is being developed by a San Francisco company, Medivation.