The size of the global longevity industry is expected to hit $40.5t (£30t) next year.
Targeting the biology of ageing could unlock a powerful and cost-effective way to prevent and treat multiple chronic diseases at once, leading to healthier, longer lives, according to health experts.
Instead of managing several chronic conditions such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoarthritis, which all skyrocket with age, a therapy that slows ageing can reduce the risk for all of them.
Studies showing that drugs could extend people’s healthspan and lifespan have convinced the industry to invest in the biology of ageing, Alexandra Bause, co-founder and venture partner at Apollo Health Ventures, told the Asian Summit on Global Health in Hong Kong in May.
She noted that companies that develop drugs to help people live longer are now testing their treatments for diseases that come with age.
“Since 2017, we have witnessed a surge in innovation, with investor interest significantly increasing, whilst major pharmaceutical companies are engaging in this space,” said Bause, who is a trained pharmacist.
The number of people aged 60 and above is expected to hit 1.4 billion globally by 2030 from 1.1 billion in 2023, Patrick Lau, deputy executive director at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, told Healthcare Asia in an interview, citing a World Health Organisation report.
“In this year’s Asia Summit on Global Health, we are particularly focusing on ‘silver health,’ a crucial area given Asia’s ageing population, a trend prevalent across the entire region, not just Hong Kong,” he said.
Sanja Tomovska, founder and CEO at Swiss life science technology company Quant Biomarkers AG, said the size of the global longevity industry is expected to hit $40.5t (£30t) next year from $33.7t (£25t) in 2022.
“A remarkable aspect of this field is the ability to detect early the signs of ageing to contextualise what an increased biological age means,” she told the event in Hong Kong.
For instance, Tomovska noted that 75% of costs in brain health stem from the hospitalisation of people with dementia.
“Early detection is key,” she said, noting that the US Food and Drug Administration in May cleared a blood test that measures the ratio of tau and beta-amyloid plaques—two proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease—in the brain.
This allows early detection of Alzheimer’s pathology in symptomatic adults aged 55 and above, streamlining who gets referred for treatments when they’re most effective, she added.
At the summit organised by the trade council, state-owned Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corp. set up an exhibition area featuring high-tech medical solutions.
There was the HandTasker, a robotic suit designed by Hopebotics to help stroke patients regain movement and strength in their hands. AusMed Global Ltd. showed its handheld breath ketone analyser, which measures ketones from a single breath in three minutes, helping diabetes patients monitor ketosis and control their weight.
Meanwhile, an artificial intelligence (AI) health monitoring app developed by PanopticAI Ltd. showed people how a smartphone or tablet camera could monitor users’ health data, such as heart and respiratory rates, and blood pressure.
James L. Kirkland, director of the Centre for Advanced Gerotherapeutics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in California, said the industry now understands ageing’s basic biology better, allowing it to come up with drugs and treatments that can help with the process.
“Science can now target root-cause processes that contribute to the majority of conditions causing morbidity, mortality, and increased health expenditures,” he told the summit.
He said the ageing process could start before conception, influencing health across a person’s lifespan. For example, post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by a woman before she becomes pregnant could accelerate the ageing process of her child.
“These processes are tightly interlinked, such that if you target one, you tend to affect all the rest,” he added.
