Venture capital firm a16z published “The State of Longevity” without mentioning “aging,” prompting James Peyer to say that “longevity” has lost its useful meaning

Venture capital firm a16z published “The State of Longevity” without mentioning “aging,” prompting James Peyer to say that “longevity” has lost its useful meaning

On November 3, Daisy Wolf and Eva Steinman of a16z published the report. On November 4, James Peyer, founder of Cambrian Bio, which develops drugs to counter age-related metabolic decline, responded to its announcement.

The report covers six markets: a “health home” app for medical records, tests, and doctor visits; “toxin-free” products; peptides; cholesterol tests and drugs; wearables; and brain-computer interfaces. Outside the title, longevity appears five times in the text. Neither aging nor lifespan appears at all.

Peyer added this response to the announcement:

“‘Longevity’ has lost its useful meaning. Longevity is part of the zeitgeist because we have managed to extend healthy lifespan in mice using approaches (now in clinical trials!) that might work in humans. 98% of what people call longevity has nothing to do with that.”

Peyer explained how the word acquired its second meaning in April on the Free Radicals podcast. Quackery builds on a kernel of truth: advances in aging biology in animals generated excitement, but consumers are impatient, and scammers sell them products that do not have to undergo clinical trials. “Longevity” thus expanded into a wellness category with a quackery problem, encompassing peptides, cash-pay clinics, and influencers. This category replaced the discredited “anti-aging” label: creams and ice baths are now sold “for longevity.” Peyer considers diet, exercise, and sleep beneficial, even when described as longevity practices.

In Peyer’s definition, an aging drug restores a function that declines with age to a healthy state. Cambrian studies metabolic differences between healthy people aged 20 and 70 to find ways to eliminate those differences. Obesity drugs based on the hormone GLP-1 fall outside this definition, Peyer said on the podcast: they treat chronic overeating, whereas people generally eat less as they age. The report’s section on peptides opens with these drugs. The authors write that they have changed people’s health more than any other drug in our lifetime, and that their success has fueled interest in other peptides that have not been approved by the FDA, with market enthusiasm outpacing the evidence.

Peyer said that researchers working on aging biology are beginning to distance themselves from wellness terminology. He suggested watching for the word geroscience, a field that targets the mechanisms of aging to slow the development of multiple age-related diseases. The day before Peyer’s post, aging researcher Max Unfried wrote: “Longevity science now means everything from wellness to age-related diseases, rather than a focus on aging biology.” Asked by a reader what term could replace it, Unfried replied that, depending on the context, he prefers “aging biology,” “maximum lifespan biology,” or “rejuvenation biotechnology.” Unfried explained the distinction between the first two on November 1 in a debate about living for 300 years: delaying age-related diseases may demonstrate slower aging, but extending maximum lifespan requires more than that.

On November 4, the life extension community Live Forever Club agreed with Unfried. In its view, “longevity” began as a polite term for life extension, then came to include supplements and healthy eating. This broadening of the term is one reason for relaunching the club as Live Forever Society with a “real focus on life extension,” meaning an increase in maximum lifespan.