Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation Announces GAP-Net

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation (GAP) announced the launch of GAP-Net, a first-of-its-kind network of clinical trial sites collaboratively working to streamline clinical research and drug development for Alzheimer's disease. GAP-Net currently has 11 leading academic and private commercial research site partners. The network looks to add a minimum of 20 more sites by year-end and grow to 60 sites nationally by the end of 2017.

Inaugural GAP-Net partner research sites and principal investigators held their first in-person meeting in Toronto, Canada this week to plan development of the network. These initial partners were joined by more than 30 potential sites to learn about the site network. The group spent several hours discussing how GAP-Net could catalyze a more collaborative and productive clinical trial process which would speed the discovery of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.   

"The Cleveland Clinic, along with GAP-Net's many partner institutions, is excited to be a part of this collaborative effort that is going to push progress forward," said Jeffrey Cummings, M.D., director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and principal investigator for GAP-Net. "The only way of getting new treatments to patients is through clinical trials. GAP-Net intends to re-engineer and accelerate trials and deliver drugs to patients faster."

GAP-Net Goals
GAP-Net goals are centered on reducing the cycle time for research and increasing standardization across clinical trial phases covering all stages of Alzheimer's disease. Each partner site commits to collaborate with each other to identify the optimal methods to achieving these goals.

"One surefire way for us to make faster progress in the fight against Alzheimer's is through collaboration," said George Vradenburg, co-founder of GAP and USAgainstAlzheimer's. "Our focus is solely about the benefit to patients and caregivers. The first person cured of Alzheimer's will be cured in a clinical trial, which is why we need to be aggressive and cast our research net far and wide."

GAP-Nets initiatives fall into three broad areas:

• GAP-Net seeks to improve the clinical quality and quantity of patients seeking participation in trials and speed their enrollment. One area of focus is to establish interoperable links between patient registries, health plans, large physician groups and GAP-Net sites.
• GAP-Net's goal is to make research more scalable and efficient. GAP-Net will certify sites on common standards, instrument training and study procedures agreed upon by multiple sponsors. This will avoid redundant training and excess paperwork. Also, common templates will be designed to streamline budgeting, contracting and other administrative tasks.
• GAP-Net looks to employ cutting-edge advances and initiatives that optimize study conduct, such as a national Institutional Review Board (IRB), participant concierge services and other participant centric services.

The Scope and Scale of the Alzheimer's disease Challenge
Alzheimer's disease affects nearly 50 million individuals around the world, including 5 million Americans. Annually, more than $800 billion is spent in medical and care costs.

"We believe the creation of GAP-Net will dramatically improve our chances of more quickly and effectively finding AD treatments and cures," said John Dwyer, president of GAP. "The world-class institutions and researchers joining GAP-Net are passionate about finding a cure."

For more information about GAP, please visit www.globalalzplatform.org.

About Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation
The Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation was launched in 2015 by UsAgainstAlzheimer's and the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) on Alzheimer's Disease with the vision of creating an integrated global clinical trial network to reduce the time, cost and risk of Alzheimer's disease clinical trials, a critical factor in the pacing of efforts to speed an effective treatment of Alzheimer's disease to those with or at risk of the disease. Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., aims to create a faster pathway to a treatment for Alzheimer's disease by 2025. It intends to do so by building a standing global clinical trial platform of willing individuals through novel recruitment techniques coupled with a network of high performance clinical trial sites.  Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation also provides an organizational framework that links prominent research institutions, the private sector and government agencies in multiple countries to fight Alzheimer's disease. For more information, please visit www.globalalzplatform.org.

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Landis Communications Inc.
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SOURCE Global Alzheimers Platform Foundation