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Alzheimer’s drug developers accuse clinical trial sites of faking data
T3D Therapeutics alleges that contract researchers delivered “medically impossible” results on its candidate drug.
January 7, 2026
In 2023, the drug developer T3D Therapeutics glimpsed a breakthrough after a decade of research on a novel compound to treat Alzheimer’s disease. A clinical trial for its drug, code-named T3D-959, initially seemed to support the company’s belief that the pill stimulates the brain’s ability to process sugar and could reverse cognitive decline in the neurodegenerative condition.
But before it trumpeted the good news, the small company took a closer look at detailed data for each participant. It found “a nightmare scenario,” according to a July 2025 legal complaint filed by T3D: The results were “medically impossible.” Some Alzheimer’s patients in the placebo group were reported as improving—even though the disease inexorably erodes cognitive abilities. Many trial participants did not even have the memory-robbing condition, the company claimed, and there was no sign of T3D-959 in blood samples from others who purportedly received it.
After excluding the data it deemed unreliable, the company said too few patients remained to confidently affirm any possible benefits for its drug. The trial, underwritten by $35 million in private and federal funding, was a write-off, and the company hopes to raise funds for a new trial.
Read the full story at Science.org
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