Novel mTOR Inhibitors Viewed as a Safer Option by Conservative Investors

The safest sort of investment into therapeutic development is one made in a part of a field that is well established, producing a small variant of an existing drug, using the well beaten path of small molecule development, targeting a mechanism that is very well understood, and that has extensive safety data associated with it. One could argue that mTOR inhibition is the canonical example of a low risk investment in the longevity field. Like most lower-risk exercises in medical development, the potential gain for patients is modest. mTOR inhibition can produce larger gains in mouse life span than exercise, but doesn't beat calorie restriction. Still, higher odds of a return on investment tends to far outweigh the size of potential patient benefits in the eyes of conservative investors. This is one of the reasons why progress in medicine is so very incremental. It is perhaps surprising that that the longevity industry exhibits a relatively small investment in mTOR inhibitor development in comparison to, say, the billions directed towards reprogramming approaches, given that the development of partial reprogramming therapies can hardly be described as a low-risk program at the present time. Hevolution is a Saudi Arabian fund that has for a while now been discussing a $1 billion investment into research and development of longevity-enhancing therapies. There has been some question over how and when the Hevolution leadership will start to deploy meaningful amounts o...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs