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Matthias Knab, Opalesque:

After two virtual productions, the 2022 Longevity Investors Conference welcomed at its first physical format about 130 investors and researchers from leading universities and institutions at the stylish Grand Bellevue Hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Speakers included prominent longevity experts such as George Church, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Nir Barzilai, Director, Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer at SENS Research Foundation; Brian Kennedy, Director, Centre for Healthy Longevity and Professor Departments of Biochemistry and Physiology, National University of Singapore, and Charles Brenner, Alfred E Mann Family Foundation Chair of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.

The conference was initiated by Dr. Tobias Reichmuth and Marc P. Bernegger, two successful serial entrepreneurs as the only "investors'' conference in the longevity space. The longevity industry will be one of the biggest investment opportunities during the next decade - expected to be worth at least $600 billion by 2025.

Nir Barzilai kicked off the meeting with the first keynote, "How to Die Young at a Very Old Age", explaining that in spite of the dramatic improvement of life expectancy at birth humanity still has room improve lifespan and foremost healthspan - the total number of years spent in good health.

The Hallmarks of Aging

However, over time, almost all living organisms experience a gradual and irreversible increase in senescence (the process of deterioration with age) and an associated loss of proper function of the bodily systems. As aging is the primary risk factor for major human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, it is important to describe and classify the types of changes that it entails.

One concept to better understand and address human aging are the Hallmarks of Aging which describe the types of biochemical changes that occur in all organisms that experience biological aging and lead to a progressive loss of physiological integrity, impaired function and, eventually, death. Let's just recall that according to her death certificate, "old age" was given as the cause of death of the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II.

But, again, how do we age, and what are the actual processes involved? A paper published in 2013 conceptualized the essence of biological aging and its underlying mechanisms as follows:

1. Primary Hallmarks of Aging (causes of damage):
   • Genome instability
   • Telomere shortening
   • Epigenetic alterations
   • Loss of proteostasis

2. Antagonistic Hallmarks (responses to damage):
   • Deregulated nutrient sensing
   • Mitochondrial dysfunction
   • Cellular senescence

3. Integrative Hallmarks (functional result of the previous two):
   • Stem cell exhaustion
   • Altered intercellular communication

Nir Barzilai went on to explain how Metformin, a drug he described as safe, with few side effects, generic and cheap, would target all nine Hallmarks of Aging, sharing data how the drug extends healthspan and lifespan in animals. Barzilai added that for humans, in clinical and other trails Metformin has been proven to prevent diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, cognitive decline, and improve overall mortality.

In another keynote address, Manuel Blanco, a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and Co-Founder of Impact Gstaad, explained why the bank identified longevity along with the "Silver Economy" as one of six supertrends investors should be aware of and engage in.

Booming "Silver Economy"

The "Silver Economy" theme can be broken into four sub sectors: Therapeutics & devices, care & facilities, health & life insurance, and senior consumer choices. The overriding driver of the Silver Economy is, of course, the tidal demographic change that will double the world's senior (60+) population from now to 2050. Already now, the elderly consume a disproportionate amount of healthcare resources, and 80% have at least one chronic disease. This issue is no longer contained to developed markets as accelerated aging in emerging markets changes the lay of the land there as well and creates new insurance and pension needs.

Thanks to accumulation of wealth over the course of the life and late-in-life inheritances, seniors have substantial buying power. With that, healthcare spending per capita and also per age band - the older, the higher - is only going up, possibly to levels that could constitute a risk of overburdening public budgets. Comparing the MSCI World Health Care versus MSCI World, health care has outperformed over the short and long term and is therefore one of Credit Suisse's preferred equity sectors in current markets.

The conference also highlighted in a "pitch" format multiple investment opportunities in promising start-ups, drug developments and medical devices. The audience was also updated on the the latest applications of AI in research and medicine. Dr. Tobias Reichmuth explained his approach how to invest in longevity "while avoiding (binary) biotech risk", which is the approach he follows with his longevity company builder (incubator) Maximon.

"I never have been happier handing over CHF 50,000!", said Dr. Tobias Reichmuth, who is well known in Switzerland as a "lion" at the investor-show "Höhle der Löwen", the local version of the popular Shark-Tank television format.

"If people get 120 years old and stay healthy until they die, everything changes, our entire social systems will change. This also means that we will see many huge investment opportunities in different industries and sectors. This topic is one which moves people. Next to making a nice profit, they share the interest of staying healthy and living longer. With their investments, they support research we will all benefit from. Longevity investments therefore provide a double dividend, not only a financial return, but also support scientific progress. I think this is the motivation of many of the investors in that field," Dr. Reichmuth said.

For more information and to apply for the 2023 Longevity Investors conference, visit https://www.longevityinvestors.ch/