Rich investors throwing serious support behind death-defying biotech companies
Death. This is a favorite conversation topic at cocktail parties (NOT!). Most people don’t like to think, much less talk about death, and now, thanks to billionaires who don’t want to die, there is so much money being raised and invested in studies and companies whose goal is to conquer death. Larry Ellison, chairman of the software giant Oracle, has donated around $500,000 to anti-aging research. Google co-founder Larry Page helped fund Calico, a lab that describes itself as wanting “to better understand the biology that controls aging and life span.”
Peter Thiel — the entrepreneur behind PayPal— was an early investor in Unity Biotechnology, which is devising therapeutics to delay aging-related diseases at the cellular level. He is an ardent believer and buys into the concept of living upwards of five thousand years or even, as Thiel told the New Yorker Magazine, “forever.” Bezos, the second richest man in the world behind Elon Musk, has invested some of his $199 billion into a new “rejuvenation” start-up called Altos Labs, according to an article in the MIT Technology Review earlier this year.
An hourglass next to three white plastic bottles and loose pill capsules.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has a track record of accurate predictions, has stated that in seven years, humans might be able to live indefinitely. He believes that with the technological advances and expansions we’re witnessing today in genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology, nanobots will soon run through our veins.
It all sounds great until you must support yourself. Billions of dollars might allow one to live “forever,” but in the US that’s only seven hundred and twenty-four people. What do the rest of us do? This is where the science of aging comes into play. David Sinclair, Ph.D., a prominent longevity researcher and Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, speaks optimistically about overcoming some of the most debilitating age-related diseases. “We needed to find diseases that could be treated, and, as a side effect, we’re hoping to see additional benefits that prolong life itself.”
A bottle of anti-ageing serum in front of leaves and a wet blue background.
In the near term, death is still a constant. Mice might live longer by sharing old blood with new blood, but it will be a couple of decades before humans can benefit. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) does not see death as a disease, making it hard to find funding to prevent death.
Luckily, we have billionaires who are enjoying the good life, don’t want to give it up, and are funding companies to find “forever life”. (Can you blame them?!?) For the rest of us mortals, we have the Dr. Sinclairs of the world, fighting disease in hopes of creating longevity. Bring it on!!
About H. Frances Reaves, Esq.
H. Frances Reaves Esq.
An estate and Medicaid planning attorney, Frances began her legal career as a litigator/lobbyist. After 15 years in Maryland politics, she moved back to Key Biscayne and founded Parent Your Parents, an Elder Advocacy group.
She was inspired by her parents’ struggle with the “Elder Bureaucratic System” and realized help was needed. Should you have any questions or comments, please contact her at hfrancesr@parentyourparents.com or 786-418-3303.
For Frances Reaves’ last column, click here.
