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Policy Dispatch: The Amyloid Debate
In this Policy Dispatch, World Dementia Council Executive Director Lenny Shallcross takes on an argument gaining ground in the Alzheimer's debate — one that pools failed trials with successful ones and concludes the field should move on from amyloid. He argues the more useful question is not whether the first generation of anti-amyloid treatments is the endpoint, but how much further the science can go. Modern trials confirm the biology, identify people earlier in the disease trajectory and show that anti-amyloid treatments slow progression. The pipeline — combining anti-tau, anti-inflammatory and other approaches — is rich. The field is not stuck.
Dementia science is entering a new phase. Breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment are creating real momentum across the field, but the challenge 
now is ensuring those advances reach people — in clinics, in health systems and in communities around the world.
To explore these challenges, the World Dementia Council will host a breakfast roundtable on 15 July 2026 alongside the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in London, in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association. Leaders from across the field will come together to discuss what it will take to turn scientific progress into meaningful change for patients.
The meeting forms part of the WDC’s Advocacy Programme, which explores how to accelerate collaboration and build partnerships across the global advocacy movement in an era of treatments.
This is an invitation-only meeting. For more information, email info@worlddementiacouncil.com.