3.1 Death and its discontents – or extending human longevity

Human longevity is a precious thing. Some people receive a tragically short amount of it. Others who have it in abundance want even more of it – and a reasonable chunk of the biopharmaceutical industry has organised itself around the goal of delivering it to them. 

Age-associated diseases encompass a very broad area of human disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disease, among many others. These have, obviously, been mainstream concerns for drug developers for decades, but in more recent years, new biological insights into the molecular and cellular dimensions of senescence have opened up new possibilities for biotech firms focused on interrogating the ageing process.

Some of the early efforts flamed out, however. GSK’s $720 million acquisition of Sitris Pharmaceuticals was a notorious example. And some of other concepts that have emerged from academic research in animal models, such as restricting food intake, blocking telomere shortening and administering senolytic drugs have either proved unsuccessful or unworkable in humans.

It may be that the pharmaceutical industry can only make a modest contribution here – ageing is a biological process rather than a disease, even if some techno-utopian dreamers think that death is merely the outcome of a series of system bugs that can be fixed. They are fixed on attaining longevity escape velocity – a wholly theoretical scenario in which technologically enabled improvements in life expectancy outpace the ageing process. For the rest of us, a healthy old age for all would be a welcome outcome – and we’re a very long way from obtaining that.

Companies mentioned in this episode: 
Abbvie, Arivale, Calico Life Sciences, GSK, Sitris Pharmaceuticals 

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