Dementia drug from Alector fails to slow patient decline in trial

An experimental drug from Alector Inc. failed to slow the decline of patients with frontotemporal dementia in a late-stage study, the company announced Tuesday.

Alector said it would lay off 49% of its employees as a result. The company employed 238 people as of last December. 

The drug, called latozinemab, was one of several experimental drugs that had entered clinical trials for frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, a form of dementia thought to affect around 50,000 to 60,000 Americans.