Vaxxas thinks its vaccine-enhancement technology platform, Nanopatch, can bring in milestones and royalties just like a biotech drug candidate by offering increased potency and easier administration to makers of vaccines.

One way or another, it is an important time in the Alzheimer’s disease space. Two potential disease altering therapies are set to divulge Phase III results that will answer important questions about the course of the illness, whether they are successful or not, and a promising cognition booster may get the Phase II readout it needs to head into a pivotal trial.

Whether Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and others can succeed at bringing a gamma secretase inhibitor to market for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease is far from certain.