The ageing biotech industry
Sven Bulterijs1,2
The first biotech companies working on ageing got established in the 1990s (examples include Geron Corporation, Alteon Corporation, Sierra Sciences, and Elixir Pharmaceuticals). The success of Sirtis Pharmaceuticals (founded in 2004) and sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2008 for $720 million inspired a wave of new companies such as Calico, Human Longevity Inc., Chronos Therapeutics, and many others. In this talk I will analyse the strategies used by biotech companies working on ageing and the unique challenges that such companies face. No regulatory path has been created for the approval of geroprotective drugs or interventions. Furthermore, as human clinical trials, using life span as an end point, are unfeasible due to the long time period that such studies would involve and the lack of clear and robust biomarkers of ageing, it remains problematic to prove that a geroprotective intervention is able to successfully delay human ageing. While the ageing biotech industry is blooming investments are still insufficient due to the challenges described above.
The author is an employee of Aging Analytics inc.
Sven Bulterijs1,2
- Heales vzw
- Aging Analytics inc.
The first biotech companies working on ageing got established in the 1990s (examples include Geron Corporation, Alteon Corporation, Sierra Sciences, and Elixir Pharmaceuticals). The success of Sirtis Pharmaceuticals (founded in 2004) and sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2008 for $720 million inspired a wave of new companies such as Calico, Human Longevity Inc., Chronos Therapeutics, and many others. In this talk I will analyse the strategies used by biotech companies working on ageing and the unique challenges that such companies face. No regulatory path has been created for the approval of geroprotective drugs or interventions. Furthermore, as human clinical trials, using life span as an end point, are unfeasible due to the long time period that such studies would involve and the lack of clear and robust biomarkers of ageing, it remains problematic to prove that a geroprotective intervention is able to successfully delay human ageing. While the ageing biotech industry is blooming investments are still insufficient due to the challenges described above.
The author is an employee of Aging Analytics inc.
