WELCOME: GLOBAL BHP BRAINTRUST
A Message from Andrea Pfeifer, Chair of the Global BHP BrainTrust
October offered great news for patients and hope more generally for the Alzheimer’s disease field. In the opinion of many scientists in our field, myself included, the release of positive lecanemab Phase 3 data has validated amyloid beta as a target for Alzheimer’s disease therapies. While not a cure by itself and not unlike cancer treatment, we expect that multiple therapeutic agents used in combination and delivered using a precision medicine approach, will be required to prevent complex neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s.
We are further encouraged by the World Health Organization’s release of a blueprint for dementia research, the first WHO initiative of its kind for non-communicable diseases. The blueprint is designed to provide guidance to policy makers, funders, and the research community on dementia research, making it more efficient, equitable, and impactful.
This news heartens my work on the development of Alzheimer’s vaccines (Abeta and Tau) to harness the immune system to generate its own antibodies while potentially offering better safety, tolerability, and less frequent dosing for patients. It will also accelerate new diagnostics and precision brain health that focuses on monitoring and intervening across the entire spectrum of cognitively normal to disease and optimizing one’s brain capacity by finding the right approach for the right person at the right time.