A treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is the drug industry’s longest shot, and any brave investors willing to place a bet on the outcome are likely to focus on Eli Lilly & Co. Lilly and Pfizer Inc are the farthest along in developing experimental medicines for the memory-robbing disease. But Lilly, as the far smaller company, has much more upside for its share price if it hits pay dirt. The field is littered with high-profile failures, one of the most recent being a previous Lilly compound. Lilly’s latest contender, solanezumab, is designed to bind to and mop up a protein called amyloid beta, the main component of amyloid plaque deposits in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
