Link: http://www.nytimes.c...ney/21OLDY.html
Date: 09-21-03
Author: Andrew Pollack
Source: New York Times
Title: Forget Botox. Anti-Aging Pills May Be Next
Comment: A four page article in the business section of the New York Times regarding the possibility of an anti-aging pill.
Forget Botox. Anti-Aging Pills May Be Next.
By ANDREW POLLACK
DAVID SINCLAIR made headlines last month by discovering that a chemical commonly found in red wine could vastly increase the life span — of yeast.
Now he aims to become biotechnology's answer to Ponce de León. Dr. Sinclair, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, says he hopes to soon start a company to develop drugs that would slow aging and make people live longer, healthier lives.
An anti-aging pill could be the ultimate blockbuster drug. People, particularly aging baby boomers, already spend billions of dollars to fight the ravages of aging with medicines and procedures — from heart bypass operations and Lipitor to face-lifts and Viagra.
But those solutions tackle one problem at a time. At least in theory, an anti-aging pill could postpone the onset of many problems simultaneously. Such a pill could be taken not only by people with a certain disease but potentially by everyone.
Of course, if the drug merely meant spending extra decades with the infirmities of old age, many people would not want it. But evidence from laboratory animals suggests that slowing aging would also prolong youthfulness and postpone the onset of age-related diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.
"That would mean one drug that would slow down or prevent cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease," said Dr. Sinclair, who has been making precisely this pitch to the venture capitalists he has been visiting lately. "There is no single drug like that that has ever been contemplated."
About a dozen biotechnology companies, some with hopeful-sounding names like Elixir Pharmaceuticals, LifeGen Technologies, Longenity, Chronogen, GeroTech, Juvenon and Rejuvenon, are already pursuing aging-related drugs. It is not clear which, if any, will enjoy a long corporate life span. But as Dr. Sinclair put it, "even if there's a 1 percent chance that we're right, it's still a pretty good gamble."
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