Stay young, get rich – why longevity science is the next money fountain

By Stefania Barbaglio 12 April 2017

3 mins. to read

Stay young, get rich – why longevity science is the next money fountain

At the latest Master Investor Show, Jim Mellon, one of the UK’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, revealed his current passion and new investment focus: longevity science. Jim truly believes that longevity is the next “money fountain” and that in 30 years’ time, life expectancy will easily reach 110 years due to cutting edge technologies and research developments.

Do you want to live forever?

Staying young forever is a cherished dream for many, but the challenge lies in managing our organisms’ ageing process so that if we do live to 110, we can enjoy the highest possible quality of life.

It has long been said that the secret of youth is a healthy lifestyle: no smoking, moderate drink, good diet, regular activity, minimal stress. Although these tips are highly beneficial, human bodies have their own biological, personal and social limitations.

The science of longevity was created from the desire of bioscientists to understand and fight the causes of ageing. Innovative thinkers everywhere – particularly in the US and Europe – are looking to find the ultimate anti-ageing remedy. Researchers and scientists are partnering with entrepreneurs and executives to develop cutting edge technologies that are transforming the way we understand medicine, health care and drug treatments.

Longevity investment opportunities

The spectrum of companies involved in longevity science is far-reaching. It ranges from biosciences and biotechnology to dermatology, and software engineering; all of them sharing the same ultimate goal of breaking the biological barriers our bodies encounter and exploring our organisms’ most efficient components.

Jeunesse aims to bring a new concept to skin care and healthy living. Jeunesse products are made with cutting-edge technology that work at the cellular level in order to enhance youth. Jeunesse’s formulae are based on use of stem cells, antioxidants, Y.E.S (Youth Enhancement System) and DNA repair.

Hydra Biosciences is an American biopharmaceutical company developing novel ion channels, technologies and drugs to treat pain, inflammation and anxiety, as well as renal, pulmonary and other diseases. Hydra’s technology allows treatments to be more selective and target specific affected areas, and is considered to be a safer alternative to current drugs on the market.

SalvaRx (SALV) is the reborn 3 Legs Resources, a previous oil and gas investor. SalvaRx was launched on the London AIM market in March last year and is, as a drug development company, focused on cancer immunotherapy. The group was founded by Drs. Ian Walters and Rob Kramer, former Bristol-Myers Squibb drug developers. Cancer immunotherapy is a relatively new area of cancer treatments being explored. Immunotherapy aims to use our natural biological powers to respond to and fight cancerous cell growth.

Insilico Biotechnology is a market-leading company providing solutions and software for the stimulation of living cells. Insilico’s creations are used by chemical and pharmaceutical companies worldwide in order to optimise and maximise their development processes by reducing time, costs and risks.

Biotechnology company CohBar, Inc.is focusing on research and development of mitochondria based therapies (MBTs), aiming to treat age-related diseases. Mitochondria is the ‘lung’ of the cell and in MBTs, part of its genome is extracted and incorporated into treatment drugs.

Editas Medicine is an innovative genomic medicine company working on genome editing as a treatment for patients suffering from genetically defined diseases. Editas is developing a tool named CRISPR – Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, which allows their scientists to target specific pieces of DNA and potentially repair damaged genes.

In-vitro 3D tissue printing company Organovo partners with biopharmaceutical companies to provide them with identical functional human tissue used for drug testing, nullifying the need to administer the chemical on a person or lab animal.