Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is a common and devastating condition, and the launch of a specific treatment naturally attracted intense interest. The new drug, donepezil (Aricept), an anticholinesterase agent, was licensed in the United States in December 1996, with reports that it had produced “highly significant improvements in cognitive and clinical global assessments” in randomised trials lasting 30 weeks and had increased the proportion of “treatment successes” by 245%.1