Targeted failure of the week. Post No 21. Tideglusib

Zeltia Alzheimer's drug tideglusib misses endpoints.

There has been more disappointment in the search for effective Alzheimer's disease treatments after Spain's Zeltia announced results from a mid-stage trial of tideglusib.

The structure of the failed drug is very simple. Every targeted drug has to have very sound story about WHY this particular drug is effective. And Tideglusib's story is very sexy:

It is a blow for Zeltia given that in experimental models, tideglusib (also known as NP-12), the only GSK-3 inhibitor nowadays in clinical development for AD, "has demonstrated ability to act on the most relevant histopathological lesions associated with AD-reducing tau protein phosphorylation, accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, oligomeric amyloid toxicity, neuritic dystrophies, and hippocampal and entorhinal cortex neuron loss", the company says.

It sounds so complicated (especially about tau-protein) that should convince everybody that the compound is extremely promising! Is complexity best?