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A progressive degradation of physiological function, coupled by an increase in susceptibility and mortality as a result of increasing age, can be termed as aging . Age-related illnesses are the primary cause of death and the highest consumer of health-care resources. The desire to delay the onset of old age is as old as human civilization itself. In light of the fact that the world is getting older, devising strategies to maintain health in old life and delay the onset of disease in the elderly is important.
The prevention of age-related disorders is more crucial now than ever. Apart from that, we now understand that it is possible. In animal models, it is possible to slow down the ageing process. There have been numerous genetic, nutritional, and pharmaceutical therapies. It has been demonstrated that increasing lifetime, in certain circumstances considerably (the current record is tenfold), may be achieved. Model organisms with limited lifespans, such as yeast, worms, flies, killifish, mice, and rats (Tacutu et al., 2013; Kenyon, 2010), are used. The ability to slow the pace of ageing in humans would have significant financial ramifications.
Furthermore, life-extending measures not only boost longevity but also delay the development of age-related disorders, ultimately resulting in an extension of healthspan (i.e., the length of time one lives in good health). These advancements in the biology of ageing, as well as its implications for health and disease is referred to as ‘geroscience,’ and it has led to the promise that we would be able to delay or even prevent the onset of old age. Human ageing is being slowed, resulting in unparalleled benefits (Kennedy and Pennypacker, 2014).
Treating Disease and Retarding The Aging Process
Given the significant link between the ageing process and age-related disorders, the advantages emerging from anti-aging science have immense potential. The effect of delayed ageing, which results in 2.2 years of additional life expectancy, would result in US$7 trillion in savings over 50 years, according to a model of future health and spending in the United States. Addressing single pathologies such as cancer and heart disease, on the other hand, would result in less savings, primarily due to competing risks (Goldman et al., 2013).
In this context, anti-aging therapies are defined as those that prevent the onset of numerous diseases by interfering with the underlying biological processes that are connected with the onset of age-related functional decline. While certain therapies may be labelled as single disease for funding, business, or regulatory reasons, we include them if they target aging-related processes or longevity-determining pathways and genes regardless of how they were labelled or funded.
Anti-aging research has immense economic potential because of the enormous financial benefits that it has the potential to provide. However, as a result of more recent scientific advancements, the anti-aging sector has seen significant growth in recent years [9], with some fledgling startups being funded by world-leading brands such as Google and Microsoft (Scott and DeFrancesco, 2015).
This article will first examine firms and approaches in the field of anti-aging biotechnology (Table 1). The discussion then moves on to some of the difficulties and problems associated with business development based on anti-aging technology.
Commercial Biotech Companies and Approaches
Traditional pharmacological treatments are the most common and widely studied method of targeting ageing, as is the case with most disorders.
Table 1. Anti-Aging Commercial Units
| Name | Capital | Year | Website | Approach |
| Biotie | $152M acquired
by Acorda Therapeutics 2016 |
1998 | biotie.com | Neurodegenerative disease therapies; SYN-115 in Phase III trials
|
| Unity | $116M | 2009 | unitybiotechnology.com | Senolytic agents |
| Siwa Therapeutics | siwatherapeutics.com | Senescent cell antibodies | ||
| Proteostasis Therapeutics | $108M, Public 2016 | 2007 | proteostasis.com | Drug-based control of protein homeostasis |
| Calico | 2013 | calicolabs.com | Develop drugs based on the biology that controls lifespan | |
| HLI | $300M | 2013 | humanlongevity.com | Integrate large omics data sets to find patterns in age-related diseases |
| Elysium Health | $20M | 2014 | elysiumhealth.com | Nutraceuticals; trial-tested NAD+ precursor Basis |
| Alkahest | $54M | 2014 | alkahest.com | Working with Grifols to develop plasma-based therapies |
| BioTime | $76M, Public 1992 | biotimeinc.com | Develop cell therapies | |
| Centagen | centagen.com | Develop activators of adult stem cells | ||
| BioViva | 2015 | bioviva-science.com | Gene therapy to induce telomerase | |
| Interleukin Genetics | $65M, Public 2003 | 1997 | ilgenetics.com | |
Conclusion
Only a small percentage of the 4000 private and 600 public biotech companies in the globe have seen their profits increase in recent years. In the past, only one out of every 5000 discovery-stage drug candidates has been approved, and only a third of those have been able to return their R&D costs (Kolchinsky, 2004). Furthermore, despite the fact that we now have more information, data, and prospective targets than ever before, the success rate of clinical trials is not improving any time soon.
Using genomics methods and taking a multidisciplinary approach are essential, but while these have expanded the search field, attrition rates continue to be quite high.
Even a disaster of this magnitude has not deterred investors, including several millionaires in the technology industry. There is no doubt that new technologies will be created and new targets will be discovered in the next years and decades, potentially opening up new opportunities for the commercialisation of ageing in different directions in the process. The promise of delaying the onset of old age is more compelling than ever, and the financial rewards accruing to any company that is successful in fulfilling that promise will continue to be tremendously tempting. In this way, anti-aging biotech can be viewed as an extreme mirror of the biotech sector: hazardous and most likely to fail, but the consequences of one company’s success are tremendous.
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References
de Magalhães, J. P., Stevens, M., & Thornton, D. (2017). The Business of Anti-Aging Science. Trends in Biotechnology, 35(11), 1062–1073.
Goldman, D.P. et al. (2013) Substantial health and economic returns from delayed aging may warrant a new focus for medical research. Health Aff. (Millwood) 32, 1698–1705
Kennedy, B.K. and Pennypacker, J.K. (2014) Drugs that modu-late aging: the promising yet difficult path ahead. Transl. Res. 163, 456–465.
Kenyon, C.J. (2010) The genetics of ageing. Nature 464, 504– 512
Kolchinsky, P. (2004) The Entrepreneur’s Guide to a Biotech Startup (4th edn), Evelexa BioResources
Scott, C.T. and DeFrancesco, L. (2015) Selling long life. Nat. Biotechnol. 33, 31–40
Tacutu, R. et al. (2013) Human Ageing Genomic Resources: integrated databases and tools for the biology and genetics of ageing. Nucleic Acids Res. 41, D1027–D1033
