medication

The search continues.

Eli Lilly and Company has spent three decades and $3 billion in an Ahab-like quest to develop the world’s first effective drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

“We want high quality of life as long as possible, don’t we?” says Lilly executive Jan Lundberg. “Many of our current diseases are chronic, and they accumulate with age, so there are major demands coming from the aging population.”

With thousands of medical success stories and billions in revenue, officials at Lilly are still celebrating the success of Zyprexa. But its troubled path reveals volumes about how difficult bringing even an approved medication to market can turn out to be.