The “Stepping Stone” Approach to Getting Longevity Drugs to Market
<p>The silver tsunami is coming.</p>
<p>By 2050, the number of people in the world over the age 60 will double, making up a fifth of the world’s population. Two-thirds of them will live in low-income and middle-income countries but health systems and economies worldwide will feel the strain.</p>
<p>Older people tend to have a disproportionate amount of health problems. A <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61347-7/fulltext" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">study in 2014</a> found people over 60 account for almost a quarter of the global disease burden, even though they only made up 12 percent of the world’s population.</p>
<p>We will see a flood of new cancer tumors, cases of heart disease and stroke, frailty, metabolic syndromes and diabetes, and countless other age-related diseases. The number of people suffering dementia alone is <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00249-8/fulltext" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">expected to triple</a>, all <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2023/01/2023wsr-fullreport.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">fueled by our greater longevity</a> and shifting demographics, which the United Nations refers to as the “defining global trend of our time.”</p>
<p>Dealing with this coming storm will depend on addressing all manner of issues. To name just a few: health disparities, gaps in preventive care, the need to detect diseases sooner, social stigma attached to mental illness, our inability to treat dementia, financial toxicity, and health misinformation.</p>
<p>One daring solution could be to find ways of addressing aging itself, by developing drugs to broadly prevent age-related diseases. It’s a dream embraced by many longevity experts today, but can we actually achieve it?</p>
<p>Proto.life asked <a href="https://proto.life/2022/09/7-lessons-on-aging/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">some of the world’s leading experts</a> in the field what it will take to get an FDA-approved pill that makes it possible to live a longer or healthier life. Though there was no consensus as to what the first longevity or “geroprotective” drug will be, several of these experts expressed confidence that it’s only a matter of time.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.proto.life/the-stepping-stone-approach-to-getting-longevity-drugs-to-market-924162785e20"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>