The Women’s Brain Foundation (WBF) is calling for people to sign and share a new petition demanding a sex- and gender-informed approach to research, drug development and healthcare.
The petition, hoped to reach 10,000 signatures, will be presented to global leaders at the World Health Organization General Assembly (WHO GA), taking place in Switzerland between 19–27 May 2025. It is intended to drive policies that ensure diversity in science, medicine, and drug development.
The Switzerland-based international non-profit organisation works to implement sex and gender precision within medicine, focusing particularly on brain diseases.
“Our petition is extremely important as it highlights the urgency of considering sex and gender characteristics, ethnicity, social status, wealth when doing research and clinical development,” explains Dr Antonella Santuccione-Chadha, co-founder and CEO of the Women’s Brain Foundation.
“All factors which play a crucial role in disease onset, risk, progression and treatment response. Ignoring them in the era of big data and AI is not only poor science but negligence.”
Highlighting the particular relevance to healthcare for people with Parkinson’s in Europe, she adds: “In a European territory where more and more women’ experience Parkinson’s in middle life, where more and more patients from diverse ethnicities and genetic backgrounds than Caucasian are seeking medical treatment, it is time to proceed with precision medicine approaches.”
