Читать книгу Anti-Aging Therapeutics Volume XVII - A4M American Academy - Страница 7

Today, multinational companies are pouring billions of dollars into anti-aging medical technologies. In particular, Silicon Valley has engaged significant resources: each of these megacorporations proudly equates themselves with “anti-aging.” As such, the phrase “anti-aging” is now poised for transformation from a disparaged term to one of prestige and dominance.

Google backs privately held 23andMe, which offers a DNA test for consumers who can secure genetic reports and ancestry-related data. In 2013 by Google’s CEO and co-founder, Larry Page – 40 years old at the time, founded Calico (California Life Company) with $1 billion in start-up funding. Describing its goal as “focusing on the challenge of aging and associated diseases.” Page has observed that: “With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives.”¹ Calico is headed by Art Levinson, former CEO of Genetech, a highly successful biotech company specializing in cancer therapies.

In mid-2014, Calico forged a 10-year R&D collaboration deal with AbbVie Inc., a major US drugmaker (notably, Humira®, a rheumatoid arthritis biologic).² Each company is reported to invest an initial $250 million, with a possible additional $500 million in the future. Using this funding, Calico will use its scientific expertise to establish a world-class research and development facility and AbbVie will use its commercial expertise to bring the new drugs discovered in this facility to market.

In early 2014, US scientist Craig Venter, who mapped the Human Genome a decade ago, founded Human Longevity, Inc.¹ With $70 million in its first round of private funding and prominent Asian real estate developers as key investors, the company aims to take a genome-based approach “to tackle the diseases associated with aging-related human biological decline.”

In 2015, The Pharma division of Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Research & Development, announced its investment of billions of dollars towards 3 research projects to “prevent illnesses – particularly relating to aging and lifestyle.”³

Today’s tech billionaires are seeking to cheat death:

Peter Thiel (Paypal, Facebook) is now age 47. Thiel’s Breakout Labs “aims to support early-stage companies that push the boundaries of what’s possible”, as he considers “death [as] humanity’s greatest enemy." He has stated that: “Almost every major disease is linked to aging. At the end of the day, we need to do more. A tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of NIH [National Institutes of Health] spending goes to genuine anti-aging research.”⁴

Larry Ellison (Oracle) is investing $430 million because “death has never made any sense to me.” Sergey Brin (Google) has committed $150 million to DNA data mining.⁵