Life extension has spawned two industries: clinics sell scans and procedures of sometimes questionable benefit to patients paying out of pocket, while biotech and pharmaceutical companies pursue drugs to treat aging, The Economist reports

Life extension has spawned two industries: clinics sell scans and procedures of sometimes questionable benefit to patients paying out of pocket, while biotech and pharmaceutical companies pursue drugs to treat aging, The Economist reports

On November 2, The Economist published an overview of these industries. Biotech companies pursuing drugs to treat aging raised 18,4 billion dollars in 2025, more than in the previous ten years combined, the magazine reports.

A drug to treat aging could be years away or may never arrive, according to the magazine. An industry catering to those unwilling to wait has emerged to fill that gap. Clients pay out of pocket for tests and whole-body scans that promise to detect disease before symptoms appear, with little insurance coverage available. Prenuvo's price list puts the cost of such an MRI scan at 2499 dollars. In its 2023 statement, the American College of Radiology advises against whole-body screening for people without symptoms or risk factors: there is no documented evidence that it extends life. The college is concerned that scans may reveal findings of uncertain significance that lead to unnecessary tests and expense without improving health. Andrea Maier, herself a co-founder of a longevity clinic, says that too many clinics let clients choose their own treatment as if ordering a pizza: “That is not medical care.”

The second industry, drug development, faces a regulatory obstacle: the FDA does not consider aging a disease, so a drug cannot be approved to treat aging itself. Developers first secure approval for a specific disease, often one associated with age, then explore other uses. GLP-1 drugs followed this path: they were approved to treat diabetes, then obesity, and later were found to help with heart and kidney disease, both of which become more common with age. By reducing the risk of these diseases, the drugs may also help people live longer: a review in the medical journal BMJ found that, among 19 obesity drugs, only injectable semaglutide, a GLP-1 drug, reduced all-cause mortality, by 19%. This finding came mainly from trials involving people at high risk of heart disease.

GLP-1 drugs helped Eli Lilly become the first pharmaceutical company valued at a trillion dollars; a drug to treat aging could generate even greater returns, the magazine suggests. “You could sell a year of life,” says Alex Zhavoronkov, founder of the biotech company Insilico. “How much could you charge for it?” Insilico describes its drugs as “dual-purpose”: each targets both a disease and aging. A drug targeting aging alone would struggle to attract major investors, Zhavoronkov says. Insilico's most advanced drug, rentosertib for pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lungs), entered the third and final phase of trials in July.

Pharmaceutical companies are largely buying options on biotech companies' research, the magazine reports. Under an agreement dated March 29, 2026, Insilico is entitled to receive 115 million dollars upfront from Eli Lilly, while Lilly obtains a license to drug candidates that have yet to be tested in humans; milestone payments could bring the deal's total value to 2,75 billion dollars. Novartis and the biotech company BioAge Labs agreed in December 2024 to collaborate on identifying drug targets in a deal worth up to 550 million dollars, including up to 20 million in upfront payments and research funding. In both deals, about 4% of the total is paid at the outset, with the remainder tied to milestones.

Other startups aim to reverse aging, including Retro, which has received investment from Sam Altman, and NewLimit. Most are pursuing epigenetic reprogramming: chemical tags on DNA help control gene activity, and their patterns become disrupted with age, so researchers aim to reset them. The first human trial of NewLimit's liver therapy could begin in 2027.