Greenwich, CT, USA. – October 7, 2026 – Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) and the Global BHP BrainTrust announced a strategic collaboration to advance sex-aware research, innovation, and investment in women’s brain health.

The partnership will align WHAM’s data-driven approach to accelerating funding and closing evidence gaps in women’s health with the Global BHP BrainTrust’s multi-sector philanthropic and patient network and policy influence to catalyze new public and private resources for women’s brain health research and prevention.

WHAM also announced this past June its intention to launch WHAM Ventures in 2027, where Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, former CEO of AC Immune, has taken on the role of Strategic Global Partner and Chief Scientific Officer.   WHAM Ventures will invest in precision health and prevention across conditions that affect women exclusively, differently, or disproportionately, with brain, cardiovascular, and autoimmune as core opportunity territories. It will focus on actionable science, financial return, the potential to benefit women at scale.   WHAM Ventures aims to create the conditions where women’s health innovations can reach the global market with the speed, scale, rigor, and funding to achieve success.

“Women bear a disproportionate burden of brain disease, making up two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cases and facing higher rates of depression, yet remain critically underrepresented in research and investment,” said Carolee Lee, Founder and CEO of WHAM and WHAM Ventures. “Through this collaboration with the Global BHP BrainTrust, we are turning evidence into action by identifying and supporting some of the most transformative opportunities to improve brain and mental health in women.”

Andrea Pfeifer, PhD, former CEO of AC Immune, Chief Scientific Officer of WHAM Ventures, and Chair of the Global BHP BrainTrust, added: “Precision prevention of neurodegenerative disease requires that we finally design research, funding, and policy with women’s biology and lived experience at the center. By supporting WHAM’sResearch, Investment and Life Sciences Collaboratives with the BrainTrust’s global network access to leaders in government, business, and philanthropy, we can move faster from insight to impact, especially in areas like biomarkers, microbiome, and clinical lifestyle interventions.”

Initial priorities for the collaboration include:

• Advancing sex-aware research in brain health, including biomarkers, oral and metabolic health, neuroplasticity, and microbiome brain connections that may contribute to women’s elevated dementia risk.

• Convening global stakeholders including scientists, clinicians, investors, policymakers and advocates to align strategies, share data, and drive coordinated action on women’s brain health at major forums such as Lausanne Dialogues, Davos, AAIC, CTAD, and international women’s health gatherings.

• Elevating global public awareness and policy around prevention, early detection, and equitable access to brain health care for women across the lifespan.

About WHAM

Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) is a data-driven nonprofit organization leading the transformation in redefining women’s health while forging critical partnerships across public, private, and research sectors. Through its groundbreaking research, reports and innovative initiatives, WHAM is building the business case for investing in women’s health in this historically underfunded, undervalued space. For more information, visit whamnow.org.

About WHAM Ventures

The Global BHP Working Group will be issuing a roadmap to define priority actions, accountable leaders, partners, funding needs, milestones, and measurable outcomes with the goal of translating promising solutions into scalable actions for women by 2030.

The Lausanne Action Agenda

The Global BHP Working Group will be issuing a roadmap to define priority actions, accountable leaders, partners, funding needs, milestones and measurable outcomes with the goal of translating promising solutions into scalable actions for women by 2030.

About the Global BHP BrainTrust

Launched in 2020 in Switzerland, the Global BHP BrainTrust is a multi-sector partnership of influential leaders from government, civil society, business, and philanthropy focused on prioritizing and investing in women’s brain and mental health. Its mission is to establish sustainable partnerships and programs that facilitate women’s brain health, increase awareness of prevention, and catalyze new public and private funding for gender-based research into brain health. Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, former CEO of AC Immune, serves as Chair of the Global BHP BrainTrust, and Chief Scientific Officer of WHAM Ventures.

Media Contacts

Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik I WHAM I marianne@whamnow.org I +1 (230) 434-2383

Stephanie Blum Sperisen, CSO, Global BHP Trust I stephanie.blumsperisen@gmail.com