Women’s Brain Project Switzerland joins Be Brain Powerful ® campaigns already underway in the United States and Sweden.

Lausanne, Switzerland (November 13, 2019) – The Women’s Brain Project (WBP), an interdisciplinary non-profit organization based in Switzerland, today announced that it will be joining the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health to promote the benefits of risk reduction and brain health to women in the fight to prevent, treat and eventually cure Alzheimer’s.

The announcement came at an evening reception at the Lausanne Olympic Museum hosted by the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health (GAWBH) and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi), which are affiliated with UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.

“Alzheimer’s is indiscriminate, but women bear a disproportionate burden, as around 60 percent of those caring for people with the disease are women, and women have more than double the chance of developing the disease than men,” said Professor Andrea Pfeifer, Ph.D., CEO of AC Immune, and lead sponsor for the Swiss Campaign. “As a company that is focused on developing new treatments and cures in Alzheimer’s, we are proud to be part of this global initiative.”

“We are highly interested in understanding sex and gender specific factors which might influence brain diseases like Alzheimer’s that is more prevalent in women,” said Antonella Santuccione Chadha, International Medical Manager, Roche Diagnostics and Co-Founder, Women’s Brain Project. “That’s why we endorse and support this campaign which empowers women to care for their brain health using scientific learnings which get translated into daily actions for themselves and their families.”

This latest campaign adoption propels the momentum for the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health and its Be Brain Powerful® campaign initiative to support brain health across women’s lifespans as a first-line defense in mitigating the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. The Women Brain Project preview of its planned 2020 campaign launch across Switzerland further validates earlier launches in the United States and Sweden.

"We are excited to see how the Be Brain Powerful® campaign that launched last year in the U.S. resonates with women of all ages across cultures,” said Meryl Comer, co-founder and chair of the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health. “By empowering women around the world with the tools to lead, we can track the emerging science that shows proactive measures may stave off cognitive decline and change the trajectory of brain health for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for future generations.”

“As Chief Medical Officers in their families, women have the power to lead the Brain Health movement,” said Mara Hank Moret, WBP’s Honorary President, who made the announcement.  “The Be Brain Powerful Campaign will build broader awareness, promote research, and energize WBP’s goal to foster a global conversation on the role of sex and gender in brain health.”

Earlier this month, Swedish Care International launched the Be Brain Powerful campaign across Sweden, with the goals of intergenerational brain health awareness, the well-being of caregivers, and to accelerate virtual recruitment to the Global Finger Study, led by Professor Miia Kivipelto at the Karolinska, that just last week in Buenos Aires was adopted by 14 countries in Latin America.

"During my 25 years working in the field of dementia, I have seen many people affected and so many families torn apart by Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases", says Petra Tegman, Interim CEO of Swedish Care International. "Bringing the Be Brain Powerful campaign to Sweden alongside the Global Alliance on Women's Brain Health is a powerful opportunity for us to reframe the discussion of brain health for everyone, but especially women who bear the greatest burden. Alongside our Swedish partners in this campaign, we want to spread awareness of the Global Finger Study on risk reduction and hopefully postpone symptoms related to these critical public health challenges.”

The WBP announcement came during the 2019 Lausanne Workshop, a global event for Alzheimer’s stakeholders convened under the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and supported by CEOi and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI).

“Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are the defining global public health crisis of the 21st century, and a vital part of the international response must be expansion of these kinds of coordinated efforts to promote and strengthen brain health,” said George Vradenburg, co-founder and chairman of UsAgainstAlzehimer’s, a convener of the CEOi, which has supported sex-based research on Alzheimer’s and brain health since 2015. “Brain health must be top of mind for families and world leaders in order to end Alzheimer’s, and women around the world are uniquely positioned to do that.”

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About the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health (GAWBH)

The Global Alliance was founded by four non-profits dedicated to raising awareness of the challenges of women’s brain health – the Women’s Brain Health Initiative Canada, WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s USA, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and 21st Century BrainTrust®.  The Alliance has made significant progress in moving dementia’s impact on women to the forefront of the global public health agenda, putting the issue on the World Dementia Council’s agenda and currently rolling out the Be Brain PowerfulTM campaign. The organization’s priorities include raising awareness about the importance of brain health and increasing funding for sex-based research. The GAWBH is an affiliate organization of the CEOi (a UsA2 enterprise.)

About U.S. Be Brain Powerful Campaign

WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s (a USA2 network) launched the U.S. Be Brain Powerful campaign in November 2018 with an event in New York City featuring former First Lady Laura Bush. The Be Brain Powerful campaign invites women to engage with the 30-day Brain Health Challenge – an effort that encourages women, and men who support them, to pay attention to the brain as a vital organ and monitor their mood, memory, stress and sleep daily. For 30 days, participants receive a daily email that includes a new brain health activity and opportunity to share their brain healthy behaviors on social media.

About the Women’s Brain Project- Switzerland

The Women’s Brain Project (WBP) is an interdisciplinary non-profit organization based in Switzerland founded in 2016. Composed of academic and social scientists, medical doctors, biomedical engineers, patients, and caregivers, WBP works to identify specific needs related to women’s brain and mental health, advocate for change, and position the findings for the benefit of society. With scientific publications, policy briefs, social media engagement and educational workshops, the WBP has launched an unprecedented campaign to foster a global discussion on the role of sex and gender in brain health, becoming a world leader in this field.

About AC Immune

AC Immune SA is a Nasdaq-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which aims to become a global leader in Precision Medicine for neurodegenerative diseases. The Company is utilizing two proprietary discovery platforms, SupraAntigenTM and MorphomerTM, to design, discover and develop small molecule and biological therapeutics as well as diagnostic products intended to diagnose, prevent and modify neurodegenerative diseases caused by misfolding proteins. The Company's pipeline features nine therapeutic and three diagnostic product candidates, with five currently in clinical trials. It has collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies including Roche/Genentech, Lilly and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. As a strategic leader in the field of neurodegenerative diseases, AC Immune has developed a five point Roadmap to Successful Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases that recognizes the importance of treating earlier, targeting Tau, focusing on more homogeneous populations, precision medicine and exploring neuroinflammation as a target.