9/15/22: Issue #18

Issue #18

September 15, 2022

September 15, 2022 | Issue #18

Good Evening

. Welcome back to another issue of Spannr. This week we're switching up the format a bit, allowing more room for insights and commentary around some of the major headlines from the past week within longevity biotech. This also creates another way of showing readers the narratives we're paying close attention to.

As always, please shoot over your feedback by simply hitting the reply button in your inbox.

In this week's newsletter

:

🇺🇸 Longevity goes to Washington

🐟 Fish oil shots

🏦 Retirement rankings

💸 Funding roundup

The Fountain of Youth? The Quest For Aging Therapies

In case you didn't already know, the field of geroscience (the study of aging and chronic age-related diseases) has been, thus far, largely neglected in the halls of Washington. This has been made apparent with the National Institute of Aging's (NIA) lack of funding over the years, as well as the unwelcoming FDA-approval process for treatments that do not target a specific disease.Simply put, there's a lot of progress that needs to be made. It's why whenever geroscience does get some attention in Washington, our ears perk up.Earlier today, The Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight – the same group that helped Congress to inject $4.4 billion into space exploration efforts last year – held a hearing to discuss the state of geroscience and leading research efforts to develop therapeutic interventions that target aging and age-related diseases.While we'll save our takeaways for another day, we do want to pass along a link for you to watch at your own convenience.For more context, here's also a summary of all that's at stake. To our surprise, the PDF actually serves as a great introduction to the longevity landscape by diving into the ongoing challenges, the promising research initiatives thus far, and the tough questions policymakers must face in the years to come.

A New Shot at Using Fish Oil

Every day, millions of people around the world will take fish-oil supplements with the hope of preventing heart disease, depression, and even premature births.That's because the key components of high-quality fish oil – EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) – are shown to reduce cellular inflammation and have other key benefits. Whether fish oil can prevent these things has yet to be completely proven, but most researchers agree that fish oil (and omega-3s) have potential benefits.But now, a team at Columbia University has developed a therapy that they believe can take the omega-3s from fish oil even further. The protocol involves taking an emulsion of omega-3s and injecting them directly into the bloodstream to help protect cells that are damaged when cut off from oxygen, such as during a stroke or in problematic childbirth. Researchers also believe that the therapy could be used for other conditions such as heart attacks and sickle-cell disease.Although the protocol hasn’t been tested yet in humans, studies in mice and rats have shown that the emulsion can reduce cell death by 65-90% following oxygen deprivation, such as after a stroke.Dr. Richard Deckelbaum, who is leading this research at Columbia, is also the founder of Deck Therapeutics, a company looking to use the therapy for the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), the most common cause of cerebral palsy in full-term infants.

U.S. Falls a Spot in Global Retiree Rankings

In what is shaping up to be a difficult year for retirement, the U.S. has fallen behind one spot, to #18, in Natixis Investment Managers' newly released global retirement index, which provides a measure of how supportive the economic environment is for retirement across developed nations. (See the top 10 here)As you can imagine, today's skyrocketing prices coupled with eroding purchasing power (inflation) is already creating a massive headache for those planning for life after work. What's not so apparent, however, is just how much today's longevity revolution is contributing to the equation.As detailed in the 76-report (TL;DR here), longevity is now one of three "critical retirement risks," right up there alongside inflation and high-interest rates. People may be living longer, but nobody knows how long they will live – a key input into one's budget, investment return expectations, and spending rates.In fact, according to Natixis’s 2022 survey of U.S. financial advisors, the biggest retirement planning mistake investors make is underestimating how long they will live (61%).The Bigger PictureWhile we all want to live longer, today's aging population comes with potentially severe economic consequences. For context, In 1950, the U.S. had an old age dependency ratio of just 14.2%, meaning that for every 100 working-age people, there were 14 dependent people. By 2020, it had reached more than 28%, and by 2050, the over-65 population in the U.S. is projected to reach more than 40%. All of this adds up to limited choices for policymakers, particularly as retirement benefits compete with a growing public debt burden.So, what's the solution? Raising payroll taxes? Raising the retirement age? Reducing benefits? Increasing fertility?We don't have the answers. What we do know is that the burgeoning longevity biotech sector stands the chance to disrupt not only healthcare but also the economics of nations around the world.

  • InsideTracker, a leading healthspan optimization platform raises $15 million – with participation from PeakBridge, Cornucopian Capital, OurCrowd, and BASF Venture Capital GmbH

  • Rootine, a precision health company relied on by professional athletes, raises $10 million Series A – with participation from Relevance Ventures, Techstars, and DSM Venturing

  • Gameto, a biotech company using cell engineering to develop therapeutics for diseases of the female reproductive system, raises $17 million – with participation from Insight Partners, Future Ventures, Arcadia Investment Partners, Bold Capital Partners, Plum Alley, Myelin VC, TA Ventures, Gaingels, and Korify Capital

  • Pretzel Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapies to modulate mitochondrial function launches with a $72.5 million Series A – with participation from ARCH Venture Partners, Mubadala Capital, HealthCap, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Cambridge Enterprise, Angelini Ventures, GV, Invus, Eir Ventures, GU Ventures, and Karolinska Institutet Holding

  • UConn's Center on Aging and the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences will investigate the role of p21-highly-expressing (p21-high) cells in aging, thanks to a new $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging

  • Innervace, a regenerative drugs firm growing an implantable biofabricated neural pathway to revive mind circuitry raises $40 million – with participation from Deerfield Administration, IP Group, Penn Medication, WARF Ventures, and BioAdvance

  • Aging is already solved in vitro. What comes next? (Nintil)

  • Out with the old blood, in with the young blood (Josh Mitteldorf)

  • Scientists uncover link between car fumes and lung cancer that helps explain why so many non-smokers develop disease (The Gaurdian)

  • Human genomics vs Clinical genomics (Eric Topol)

  • Plastic Might Be Making You Obese (Washington Post)

  • An ACL Tear That Heals Itself? (WSJ)

  • How nutrition impacts longevity | Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D. (Peter Attia)

Performance:

Latest Price: $138.807d-Return: -2.32%Market Cap: $11.84b

Key Drivers:

Alector (DNLI): -10.74%Geron (GERN): +6.23%Brainstorm Cell (BCLI): +26.84%