Eli Lilly shifts Alzheimer drug study to USC

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Tuesday it will shift the funding for clinical trials of an early-stage Alzheimer's treatment from the University of California San Diego to the University of Southern California. The study of solanezumab is a large part of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, a $100 million, 70-member consortium that has been headquartered at UCSD since its inception in 1991.

However, the ADCS has been embroiled in litigation since the departure of its director of eight years, Dr. Paul Aisen, who moved to USC in June. In a lawsuit filed July 2, the UC regents accused USC of conspiring with Aisen and several of his colleagues, who also moved to USC in recent months, in an attempt to take the ADCS with them. The regents alleged that Aisen and his colleagues were blocking UCSD's electronic access to the study results.