"...we are getting a little past getting excited over In vivo or vitro studies unless they are on a newer indication for the drug"
Exactly.
I looked up some pre-clinical work for a drug that was being pushed for Alzheimer's about 8-10 years ago. This was what was written:
"Collectively, our preclinical studies using the TgCRND8 AD mouse model demonstrated that dimebon might have some beneficial effect in improving cognitive function... Observations from our study and others suggesting dimebon might improve cognition in wild type mice and rats raises the possibility that dimebon might be able to benefit cognitive function in patients with other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington's disease, or in the aging population..."
This was exciting preclinical work for 10 years ago.
But, despite its success in preclinicals and early trials, dimebon failed in a late-stage double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.