Welcome
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
EPAD is slowly coming of age. Recruitment in the Longitudinal Cohort Study (LCS) has picked up significantly in the first quarter of 2018 with currently 640 research participants enrolled in 14 Trial Delivery Centers (TDCs), thereby more than doubling the monthly recruitment rate and the number of active TDCs compared to December 2017. Over the next months, we will continue to see these numbers rise as IQVIA, Sponsor and supporting EPAD Recruitment Task Force open more sites while at the same time continue to work with already recruiting TDCs to share best practices, boost, and even more importantly, maintain these recruitment levels into the LCS.
I am also happy to announce that after 2 years of hard work, the EPAD Proof-of-Concept (PoC) trial platform is ready to receive interventions for testing in a secondary prevention population. With another 4 companies announcing arresting development of promising Alzheimer drugs since the beginning of 2018, the need for EPAD and the EPAD PoC platform is greater than ever. An observation that is finding confirmation in the increasing number of pharmaceutical companies that are currently in discussion with EPAD’s Clinical Candidate Selection Committee. In further support of developing the EPAD interventional pipeline, EPAD will host a satellite symposium specifically for potential intervention owners at the 2018 AAIC in July and be present in the exhibition center with a dedicated EPAD booth. So be sure to come visit us at our booth when you are attending AAIC in Chicago.
Less than a month from now we will all meet in Amsterdam for the 2018 EPAD General Assembly which will be hosted by Prof. Scheltens and his team at VUmc. We have put together an interesting agenda and hope that you are all able to join us for a few exciting days in Amsterdam. In case you still need to register, just click Register for EPAD GA.
EPAD has gotten off to a great start in 2018 and I am confident that we can continue to build on this momentum and make this the best EPAD year ever. I would like to close by thanking all of you, no matter what your role in EPAD is, EPAD is where it is today because of you. THANK YOU, and hope to see you in Amsterdam.
This electronic newsletter will be published quarterly and be accessible via the EPAD website (https://alzheimer.noemi.lu) to inform the Alzheimer’s community on EPAD’s main achievements and upcoming events as well as allowing you to meet the scientists who make it all happen.
We hope you enjoy this issue of the EPAD newsletter! Happy reading!
Serge Van der Geyten
EPAD Coordinator
