Longevity Startups: Considerable Funding Fails to Find the Fountain of Youth

Featured Sponsor

Store	Link	Sample Product
UK Artful Impressions	Premiere Etsy Store

There is no cure for life, according to an old aphorism. Wealthy investors are more hopeful of extending the average life expectancy, perhaps indefinitely, despite years of disappointment.

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman may be among those intent on making fun of Grim Reaper any longer. His $180 million investment in San Francisco’s Retro Bioscience demonstrates that interest in antiaging startups remains healthy.

Most bioscience startups are focused on healthier old age, though some are investigating immortality through cryopreservation. A recent Thiel Fellow, part of a group awarded $100,000 to drop formal education and start a business, also plans to offer cryonics for pets.

Ten years ago, Google created the anti-aging company Calico. Researchers have searched for ways to prevent age-related diseases. However, despite a 2014 partnership with US pharmaceutical company AbbVie, extended into 2021, Calico has yet to bring some drug to the market. This year, chief scientific officer David Botstein retired, a bad image for an anti-aging specialist.

Financing is not the problem. Altos Labs, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has raised $3 billion to study cell rejuvenation.

Such rejuvenation remains theoretical. Average life expectancy around the world has increased over the past century thanks to vaccinations and improvements in nutrition and sanitation. In the US, it fell slightly in 2021 to 76.1 years, the lowest level since 1996.

Human life seems to have an upper limit that has not yet been extended. Anyone over 110 is doing remarkably well.

Some would-be centenarians believe that lifestyle is the key to longevity, not drugs. They follow the example, with dubious logic, of rodents. A slow metabolism and low body temperature can explain the long lifespan of naked mole-rats, for example.

Who wants to live forever? A longer active life for all may be desirable. But even limited human immortality would further wreck our overburdened planet. Wealthy investors need to be careful what they wish for.

The Lex team is interested in hearing more from readers. Please tell us what he thinks of longevity startups in the comments section below.