The Advent Of Longevity Technology

While the industry is not yet moving at the pace I would have predicted many years ago, with people choosing to focus on issues they believe are more pressing than longevity, there is certainly more activity in long-lived biotechnology than there was 20 years ago.

Typically, as we have noted with the Internet, semiconductors, and mobile phones, as the industry grows, it tends to publish information, analytics portals, discussion groups, and other community resources.

In the long-lived biotechnology field, several such portals have emerged in recent years. Non-profit resources like Lifespan.io that cater to the general public and focus on advocacy, and toolkits like Senescense.info Managed by Dr. Joao Pedro de Magalhaes and community blogs like FightAging.orgetc., but one notable portal, Profitability that maintains a professional editorial staff and branches out into many areas such as investment brokerage and consumer education, is longevity. technology.

I spent some time with Longevity.Technology founder Phil Neumann to talk about his views on the sector and why he considers the next few years to see significant growth in the science of sustainability and investing:

Why did you start Longevity.Technology?

In 2018 I felt there was an opportunity to launch a news platform to address the scientific and business advances that were starting to happen to build trust with investors and help those in the sector feel part of something specific – over these four years I’ve seen longevity shift from being a movement to an industry.

We launched Longevity.Technology in September 2019; Since then it has grown very fast and our ambition now is to bridge from the business/science community to the consumer/user community; We see longevity as the next big growth factor in health and wellness markets.

How do you know the longevity?

There are four areas of longevity, all of which contribute to an improved quality of life during longer healthy periods:

1. protection: prevent damage that causes aging;

2. Diagnosis: early identification of the damages of aging;

3. treatment or treatment: treat the damage that has occurred;

4. Renovation: Reverse the damage done.

Our Market Intelligence unit in-depth analysis of 500 long-life companies categorized across these four areas and the datasets we build determine the technology readiness and investment attractiveness of these companies – this gives us a unique advantage to identify serious long-lived companies and build relationships with investors.

Is longevity on investors’ radars?

Certainly, investment activity is really picking up. $4.1 billion has already been invested in the long-life business in 2022, exceeding the entire year of 2021. Investment has already doubled between 2020 ($1.8 billion) and 2021 ($3.8 billion). The size of the Altos Labs deal announced in January was $2.2 billion, which is 54% of 2022 funding so far, but there will also be announcements of a similar size during this year, so we expect the venture capital to double, again, year-over-year. .

It’s great to see this, and of course the benefits to humanity will be manifold: Economic data from Professors Scott, Sinclair and Ellison indicate that decreasing mortality and vulnerability at each age, to increase life expectancy for US citizens, is valued at $37. trillion in net present value terms, i.e. $700 billion annually.

This is why longevity is an exciting industry and why more and more people are getting it!

What is driving long-term investment growth?

Aging is not recognized as a disease by the US Food and Drug Administration, and thus traditional pharmaceutical financial models cannot be applied to long-lived biotechnologies, but the trajectory of the various treatments we see making their way through clinical pipelines is positive. Yes, some will fail, but others will not, and these companies are working to treat aging diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular and atherosclerosis.

We’ll see FDA-funded treatments emerge from long-lived biotechnologies, but in addition, their work enables a better understanding of aging pathways and how they can be controlled, leading to newly recognized endpoints. Sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength as a result of aging, is a recently recognized disease and there are companies working on sarcopenia treatments that will eventually have an exit route for their investors: so we’ll see more age-related conditions recognized when the interventions are validated. .

Will we see aging classified as a disease?

One day yes, but not any day soon, however, I am confident that we will see public health authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration or the UK National Health Service approve longevity treatments within 7 years that will either stop or reverse age-related decline ; Soon, we hope that the burden on individuals, families and healthcare systems will increase every year.

What areas of research and development are interesting?

The continuity market is set for explosive growth: the longevity business opportunity has already begun. Everyone is so excited about cellular reprogramming and rejuvenation – we’re planning in-depth reports on these new areas of longevity to educate the market to help secure funding for the most exciting longevity companies:

Cell regeneration: It can be a goldmine in the field of longevity because it holds the potential to treat not one disease but a variety of age-related diseases at the same time. This is because it targets one of the common “risk factors” that these conditions have in common in aging cells. Although cell regeneration sounds too good to be true, recent scientific advances bring it closer to reality; As evidenced by the 2020 study conducted by Vittorio Sebastiano and his team. The results of the study are the first to achieve such important results and are likely to greatly advance this exciting area of ​​research.

Tissue engineering: It brings with it the possibility of building new tissues and organs that can replace injured or damaged tissues allowing the body to eventually heal itself. Not only does this have the potential to save more lives, but it also brings with it huge economic benefits by reducing the burden on health care services.

Mitochondrial regeneration: Mitochondria have long been known as the “powerhouse of the cell”. Aging is associated with a decline in mitochondrial function. It explains why a 5-year-old has endless energy compared to an 85-year-old. Mitochondrial regeneration holds the potential to improve the physiological aging process and achieve greater physical well-being.

Longevity of pets: Studying longevity in animals has many benefits. First, the cost associated with research is much lower. Second, the time scale for learning potential benefits from different interventions is shorter. Dogs can provide insight into human longevity, as not only have we evolved with them, but we often share the same environment as them.

Longevity Supplements: Dietary supplements are categorized as nutritional ingredients and if they are proven to be safe, they can reach the market quickly. Longevity supplements are not designed simply to increase the nutrients lost from people’s diets; They can act on key aging pathways or determinants of longevity to improve period health at any age. We help two companies with their funding: one has human evidence of reduced biological life; The other squeezes the benefits of polyphenols for the Mediterranean diet into a daily capsule.

Synolitics: Cellular aging – the zombie state in which cells forget to die – is one of the nine hallmarks of aging: targeting and eliminating these cells is believed to have longevity benefits in humans. There are a number of companies working on anti-aging drugs and other ways to target aging, which are called “geriatric therapy.” With this growth in the field, there is a growing body of preclinical evidence showing promise for targeting aging to prevent age-related disease.

Diagnosis: No two 68-year-olds are alike; One may be a marathon runner while the other smokes twenty cigarettes a day. Research reveals that people not only age at different rates, but every organ and tissue within the body can do so. Diagnostic tools that help make accurate health assessments of how quickly the body is aging can offset the growing demand that the health care industry faces due to the aging population.

Is the current downturn in public markets affecting long-term investment?

To an extent, yes, we are seeing some early stage companies struggling to raise the capital they need. However, there is still a strong appetite for biotech and companies with a strong IP and well-defined markets continue to attract investor interest.

As you well know, the clinical path will take many years, so long-lived biotechnologies will overcome this current point in the financial market. We haven’t seen any slowdown in investor interest in longevity.

What are your plans for Longevity.T?

We’re currently raising funds for our seed round – we have a lot to do, but there’s also a lot of oomph to build on: longevity. Technology is fundamental to long-life market expansion: We are a leading media destination; Our unique brokerage process focused on longevity has a growing deal flow and we continue to develop commercial and scientific data sets to increase our analytical advantage and build intellectual capital.

We’re already generating revenue and we’re close to breakeven — raising more than $2 million in this round to scale up our Series A and then IPO.

Meet Phil Newman at The 9th Annual ARDD Conference in Copenhagenthe world’s largest event on aging research and drug discovery. longevity. technology Some talks and industry news from the event will be covered.