Alzheon will first take a closer look at a drug designed to target the brain-damaging amyloid plaques that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. In the hands of another drug company, the compound had previously passed safety testing but did not show enough of an effect on cognitive impairment in studies of Alzheimer’s patients. However, later analyses suggest that in patients with a certain genetic marker for Alzheimer’s, the drug did slow brain atrophy significantly. Alzheon believes that a follow-up trial will prove the drug to be successful for patients with these markers.