Organization Overview
The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP) is a patient-centered nonprofit organization founded in 2015 by George Vradenburg and John Dwyer in response to critical inefficiencies in Alzheimer’s disease drug development. GAP’s mission is to shorten the duration, reduce the cost, and improve the efficiency of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease clinical trials. GAP is now a stand-alone organization and operates three integrated lines of business: Enabled Clinical Trials, Owned Clinical Trial Sites, and AI Data and Biospecimens.
Clinical Trial Recruitment Resource
GAP-Net is a global network of continuously funded, pre-qualified clinical trial sites, academic and private, with established clinical capabilities, biomarker and imaging infrastructure, certified raters, and sophisticated management systems. GAP-Net sites are ready to activate and enroll trials faster than sites not supported by GAP services. GAP supports the network in GAP-enabled trials, with programs like the GAP Participant Services (GPS) Program, which deploys on-the-ground GPS Liaisons at trial sites to support volunteer recruitment, media outreach, community partnerships, healthcare provider engagement, memory screening events, and the Inclusive Research Initiative (IRI). The IRI has Community Connectors in the field at research sites developing and nurturing relationships in communities that are traditionally underrepresented and understudied, expanding their brain health education and helping reduce barriers to participation in clinical research.
Metrics
- Network Size: 100+ AD and PD clinical trial sites in the U.S. and Europe
- Launch Year: GAP Foundation 2016; GAP-Net operational 2017
- Time Reduction: Demonstrated reduction in trial startup time and protocol variability
- Amyloid PET Rates: Centralized pre-screening improves amyloid-positive conversion rates
- IRI Focus: Inclusive Research Initiative focuses outreach and community-based relationship development with Black, Hispanic, and other traditionally underrepresented and understudied communities
Discussion
GAP addresses a fundamental inefficiency in Alzheimer’s research: every new trial rebuilds the same site infrastructure from scratch, consuming 18-24 months before the first patient is enrolled. By maintaining a list of continuously funded, pre-qualified sites with trained coordinators, certified raters, and central IRB agreements, GAP can dramatically compress startup time for site selection. The GPS and IRI Programs add a human layer, on-the-ground liaisons and connectors who actively work in communities and with healthcare providers to generate referrals and support trial execution services. Importantly, IRI addresses the diversity gap in Alzheimer’s trials, which may be increasingly required by FDA guidance on clinical trial diversity action plans.
Contact
www.globalalzplatform.org | [email protected] | Washington, D.C.
*Content last updated September 2026