Specialty financing can help position the UK as a leading longevity therapy hub

19 August 2024

Several billionaires have made sizable investments in research and startups focused on extending human lifespans. The list includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.^[1]

The universal desire to live healthier, longer lives has led to growing focus on treatments and interventions to help people age better, extending their “healthspans” – the number of years they are able to live without chronic and debilitating disease.^[2]

The quest to extend healthspans is a booming industry, with the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market valued at an estimated US$27 billion in 2023, and predicted to reach US$45 billion by 2031.^[3] But the addressable market of longevity startups could be far greater than that because the therapies they are working to develop could potentially be used to treat many common ailments such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease that are among the most chronic conditions in older adults.^[4]

Because of the long-running obsession among tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to slow aging and even finding a “cure” for death, the most highly funded startups working on developing longevity therapeutics are concentrated in California, including Bezos-backed Altos Labs and Altman-funded Retro Biosciences,^[5] both of which target cellular drivers of aging to develop therapies that could prevent and reverse age-related diseases.

The next longevity startup hub?

The UK has strong foundations to become the next hub for longevity startups. Several British universities have a longstanding tradition of carrying out important research on various aspects of aging, helping the UK carve out a leading role in longevity research globally.^[6] Recognizing the quality of UK research, Altos set up its third research facility – following locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego – in Cambridge.

The UK also benefits from a vibrant life sciences ecosystem. The sector invests around £4.8 billion (US$6.1 billion) annually in research and development,^[7] and the incoming Labour government has published a plan, titled “Prescription for Growth,” aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the country’s life sciences industry alongside revitalizing the National Health Service.^[8]

However, though the UK punches well above its weight and leads Europe in venture capital funding for life sciences,^[9] it lags far behind the US. Crucially, the current level of funding is seen as insufficient to turn all the valuable longevity research being carried out at British universities into viable startups, and according to experts the country’s ambitions to become a leading global longevity therapeutics hub are held back by its lack of a thriving venture capital sector.^[10]

Still, a number of promising longevity startups have sprung up in the UK, including:

• GlycanAge, founded in 2020 in Newcastle upon Tyne, uses a proprietary blood test to measure people’s biological age, and offers customized advice to improve their health via online consultations.
• Muhdo, established in 2016 in Ipswich, supplies at-home DNA tests, based on which it provides users individualized guidance on living and aging better. It also offers personalized cognitive-training exercises and photo-based skin analysis and skincare recommendations.
• Senisca, founded in 2020 as a biotech spinout from the University of Exeter, is dedicated to developing new cellular approaches to rejuvenating aged cells, which could be used to target age-related diseases and the outward appearance of aging.
• Genflow Biosciences, was set up in 2020 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2022. It is focused on developing and commercializing innovative gene therapies that target the aging process in both humans and dogs. 
• Shift Bioscience, established in Cambridge in 2017, has pioneered a biomarker which can be leveraged in AI-based cell simulations to develop drugs for cellular reprogramming – a biological pathway that has successfully reversed aging in petri dishes, but is not yet safe for clinical use.
• clock.bio, launched in Cambridge in 2023, is seeking to reverse cellular aging by harnessing the regenerative capabilities of pluripotent stem cells.

But there is a stark funding divide between these British longevity startups and their Californian counterparts. Altos Labs, for example, has raised US$3 billion in funding since launch and Retro Biosciences has secured $180 million in total funding. By contrast, the best funded of the UK longevity startups is Senisca, with £7.1 million ($9.1 million) and GlycanAge, with $4.7 million.^[11] Meanwhile, Genflow raised gross proceeds of £3.7 million (US$4.7 million) in its initial public offering.^[12]

Specialty financing can help bridge the gap

As competition heats up in the burgeoning longevity therapy sector, access to funding could become an increasingly important determinant of success, especially given the long runways needed to turn breakthrough discoveries into marketable treatments.

Entrepreneurs in the UK who are eager to help realize the country’s potential in this rapidly developing sector should look to alternative sources of capital to ensure a shortage of funding does not hinder their ambitions.

In addition to startups, investors may also wish to consider listed UK biotechs, many of which are languishing after peaking during the pandemic. The valuations of several companies – especially those listed on the secondary AIM market –  have fallen below their perceived long-term potential, leading to investors opting to take them private.^[13]

More broadly, high interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty have led to a collapse in appetite for early-stage, pre-profit and high-growth startups, including those working on ways to keep us living healthier for longer.

At the same time, the global population continues aging, making the treatments that longevity startups are working on arguably more valuable than ever. By channeling capital to them, specialty financing could play an important role in helping to bridge that disconnect.

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[1] https://theweek.com/science/the-billionaire-led-quest-for-immortality

[2] https://fortune.com/well/2023/04/15/healthspan-may-be-more-integral-to-your-well-being-than-lifespan-how-to-lengthen-it/

[3] https://www.insightaceanalytic.com/report/global-longevity-and-anti-senescence-therapy-market/1354

[4] https://www.ncoa.org/article/the-top-10-most-common-chronic-conditions-in-older-adults

[5] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-12-19/longevity-startup-retro-biosciences-is-sam-altman-s-shot-at-life-extension

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/05/british-biotech-races-uss-buff-billionaires-for-secret-of-eternal-youth

[7] https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/assets/life-sciences-2030-report.pdf

[8] https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/uk-life-science-industry-optimistically-embraces-labour-victory/

[9] https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-innovation-2024-5-uk-life-sciences-sector-top-in-europe-for-raising-vc-funding/

[10] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/05/british-biotech-races-uss-buff-billionaires-for-secret-of-eternal-youth

[11] All total fundraising data from Crunchbase.

[12] https://www.londonstockexchange.com/discover/news-and-insights/london-stock-exchange-welcomes-genflow-biosciences-plc-main-market

[13] https://www.ft.com/content/48d4b1f3-e1f0-46ac-9aa4-6ad549d75edc