The Slow Spread of Off-Label Use for Treatments Shown to Target Mechanisms of Aging

A small number of low-cost and generic drugs have extensive human use and safety data, but also a sizable, compelling body of animal study evidence to suggest a likely modest slowing of aging, e.g. rapamycin, or that demonstrates the ability to target a mechanism of aging to reverse age-related disease, e.g. the dasatinib and quercetin, shown to selectively destroy senescent cells. In the US any drug approved for a given use can also be used off-label to treat other conditions. In principle the drug can be prescribed by any physician in this way. This is legal, though tends to require a slow bootstrapping process of education, physician acceptance, gradual gathering of more data for the intended off-label use, and eventual grandstanding and interference by regulators. It is an important process, though. Not just because it is a path to what are likely significant gains to health for the older end of the population, and not just because it is the only viable way to produce clinical data for generic drugs, as there is no financial incentive for industry to fund clinical trials of these treatments, but also because adoption drives public support for greater funding of research into treating aging as a medical condition, and greater investment in the longevity industry. At present, funding for aging research is a tiny anemic fraction of expenditure on medicine, and the longevity industry is minuscule compared to the broader biotech and medical industry. This is a ridiculo...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs