WELCOME: GLOBAL BHP BRAINTRUST
A Message from Andrea Pfeifer, Chair of the Global BHP BrainTrust

From Switzerland to the world: In early November, leading experts convened at the Swiss Dementia Forum to discuss the latest advances in dementia research and care. Their message was clear: prevention and early intervention are essential to protecting brain health and changing the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease for millions of people worldwide.

Alzheimer’s is a complex condition. It affects millions today, with hundreds of millions more at risk, and women remain disproportionately impacted, both as patients and as caregivers. Throughout the forum, speakers underscored the urgent need to protect brain cells before they are lost. Cognitive decline must be prevented, not merely managed. Emerging active and passive immunotherapies, targeting proteins such as amyloid and tau, are demonstrating that earlier intervention can slow or even halt disease progression.

Yet, scientific progress alone is not enough. To ensure that these breakthroughs translate into real-world benefits, we need resilient health systems, clear and streamlined regulatory pathways, accessible diagnostics, and better education for both healthcare providers and the public.

This is where the Global BHP BrainTrust plays a pivotal role. We work to ensure that the latest insights from researchers and clinicians are shared with a global network of female leaders who can drive advocacy, innovation, and action. Through initiatives such as the FINGER Plus for Women study, which explores a microbiome intervention in addition to the FINGERS multidomain approach the prevention of cognitive decline, the BrainTrust is transforming scientific discovery into strategies that improve lives, especially for women, who continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of Alzheimer’s disease.