Despite the fact that Eli Lilly and Co.'s experimental Alzheimer's drug, solanezumab, failed to meet the study objective of measuring cognitive and functional skills in the 2,050 patients participating in two late-stage 18-month trials, patient groups and Wall Street are still hopeful that the drug may win marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The hope for Lilly's solanezumab drug essentially stems from the fact that there is an evident desperation to find a drug that slows Alzheimer's; and also that the combined data from the two trials revealed that the drug was effective in slowing down mental decline in a subset of Alzheimer's patients who were suffering from a mild form of the disease.

According to Lilly scientists, the drug solanezumab works in such a way that it chiefly targets a sticky kind of plaque which collects in the brain, and is believed to be associated with Alzheimer's - a condition that largely affects elderly people.

The scientists claim that the data pooled from the studies marks the first incidence when a `solanezumab' class of drugs has been found to be effective against Alzheimer's in a major trial.

Meanwhile, about the possibility that the FDA may "look favorably" on the data from Lilly's experimental drug trials, Dr. Mark Schoenebaum - an analyst for New York-based investment research firm called ISI Group - said: "I put the odds at 20, maybe 30 percent it (the drug) gets through the FDA."