Three drugs for Alzheimer's disease have been picked for three large scale international studies, media reports say.

The drugs, one from Roche, called gantenerumab, and two from Eli Lilly and Co., one called LY2886721 and the other solanezumab, have been selected for three large scale trials that will begin early next year.

The first study will involve around 160 people from the United States, Britain and Australia who have genetic mutation that increases their risk of Alzheimer's disease; the second study will involve members of a family who have been to known to carry a genetic mutation for Alzheimer's, while the third study will involve people in the United States, aged 70 and older, who are in good health but whose brain scans have shown signs of the disease, The New York Times reported.

The three drugs that will be tested in the studies were chosen from 15 drugs that were submitted by the pharmaceutical companies, says Dr. Randall Bateman of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, lead investigator of the genetic mutation study. A committee assessed the benefits and potential side-effects of the drugs, The New York Times reported.

Recently Eli Lilly had announced that its experimental drug solanezumab has been found to be effective in slowing down memory loss in Alzheimer's by 34 percent. The Alzheimer's Association has contributed $4.2 million to the study, said Maria C. Carrillo, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association, The New York Times reported.

"The Alzheimer's Association has put in $4.2 million because we feel this is testing a very important class of drugs in a special population that may give us an answer to how the disease begins. We are trying to find these mechanisms, and how they progress through the disease process," said Dean Hartley, director of scientific initiatives at the association, as reported by HealthDay.

By 2050, it is estimated that, the care costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias will soar to $1.1 trillion.