Over the past year, 59 new Alzheimer’s clinical trials entered the pipeline, signaling increasing confidence in the global effort to find a cure. And a cure can’t come soon enough, as an estimated 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are currently living with Alzheimer's.
For the past decade, noted Alzheimer’s clinician-scientist Dr. Jeffrey Cummings and colleagues have released an annual report tracking the progress of trials in the drug development pipeline. The goal of the annual report, Cummings says, is to spot trends in clinical trial design and outcome measures, and to investigate the types of agents and biological targets that are being pursued.
Since the report’s inaugural edition in 2016, the number of clinical trials has increased 35%, with a 40% increase in therapies being tested.
“Alzheimer’s is no longer an untreatable disease,” says Cummings, a research professor with the department of brain health within the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. “It is now a disease with treatments that successfully interfere in the disease process. In addition to the recently approved therapies, several novel compounds are reading out this year and could increase the number of treatments available for Alzheimer’s.”
The 2026 annual report published on May 5 in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, a journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Looking back at previous pipeline summaries, Cummings says research in the field has shifted away from an amyloid dominant approach.
In 2016, a third of all drugs in development targeted amyloids – dense protein clusters that accumulate in the brain. Today that figure has fallen to around 20%. Over the same period, inflammation/immune targeting drugs have risen from 6% to 18%. There is also growth in the diversity of disease processes that are being targeted by experimental agents, increasing optimism that new types of therapy for Alzheimer’s will be found.
“It is clear that Alzheimer’s is a complex disease with many contributing elements,” Cummings says. “Inflammation is consistently present in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, and reducing the inflammatory response promises to slow the disease process,” he said.
Among the 2026 pipeline report highlights:
- 192 trials are currently assessing 158 drugs – an increase from 182 trials/138 drugs in 2025 and 164 trials/127 drugs in 2024.
- Amyloid targets comprise 18% of the pipeline, the same percent as in 2024.
- There are 56 repurposed agents in the pipeline this year, comprising 35% of total drugs. Repurposed drugs have already been approved for other conditions, they’re known to be safe, and can potentially reach the market sooner.
- Findings from 29 Phase 2 trials will be shared in 2026, providing insight into effects on multiple disease processes.
Cummings says that the number of trials and drugs being studied has consistently increased across the decade. He also notes that all stages of the Alzheimer’s continuum are represented in prevention trials, from those who are asymptomatic, to those who have mild, moderate, and severe Alzheimer's dementia.
Publication Details
“Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2026” was published May 5, 2026 in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions. In addition to Cummings, report authors include Yadi Zhou and Yuxin Yang with Cleveland Clinic; Kate Zhong and Amanda Leisgang Osse with the Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience within the Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV; Jorge Fonseca with the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering at UNLV; and Feixiong Cheng with the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University.
