Even tech billionaires can’t outrun the Grim Reaper

Can you outrun the Grim Reaper? If high-profile, tech billionaires globally have their way, you just might be able to. 

The holy grail of eternal youth was once the preserve of primitive belief, myth and religion. In its modern incarnation, it is a rapidly growing field of serious scientific pursuit known as longevity medicine.

Its treatment methods range from evidence-based to scientifically promising and bizarre, boosted by significant financial investment from the world’s mega-wealthy. 

These billionaires are funding research and start-ups focused on longevity and anti-ageing technologies. They are dramatically changing the scientific landscape to improve both human lifespan (quantity of life) and healthspan (quality of disease-free life). 

So far, signs are that the Grim Reaper sleeps easily at night, knowing his position in the immortality race is secure. 

Some specialists use longevity medicine and anti-ageing medicine interchangeably but there are differences. Both share the common goal of improving quality of life as people age, but with differing philosophies and treatment modalities. Both carry hefty price tags.

Anti-ageing medicine emerged in the late 20th century. It has historically faced criticism for prioritising aesthetics and external markers of ageing and lacking strong emphasis on improving underlying health conditions.

Longevity medicine is largely a 21st-century phenomenon. It takes a comprehensive view of age-related disease prevention and optimising bodily functions. It is interdisciplinary, and draws on research, advances in genetics, drug development, repurposing of existing drugs, advanced radiology, biotechnology, biomarker analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Among billionaires who believe that science and technological advancements can unlock secrets to healthy life extension is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. He has invested heavily in Altos Labs, the US start-up cofounded in 2021 by Dr Rick Klausner, a scientist and former director of the US National Cancer Institute, and Russian-Israeli entrepreneur Yuri Milner. Altos focuses on cell rejuvenation technologies aimed at reversing ageing processes.

Google co-founder Larry Page helped establish Calico Labs, founded in 2013 by Bill Maris, former CEO of Google Ventures, with Apple chair Arthur Levison as CEO. Levinson is a scientist, executive and leader in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Calico’s mission is to understand the biology of ageing and develop interventions to improve healthspan. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly invested $180m in Retro Biosciences in 2023. Retro’s areas of longevity medicine include cellular reprogramming to make cells younger; autophagy, the clearing of damaged cells; and plasma transfusion, based on plasmapheresis and research showing rejuvenating effects from young blood plasma. Plasmapheresis is a recognised clinical treatment for autoimmune and neurological conditions,

Plasma transfusions became a thing in longevity medicine in 2017, with the founding of Ambrosia by US physician Jesse Karmazin. The company gained notoriety for its approach, charging clients about$8,000  (about R112,000 at the time) for plasma transfusions harvested from young donors. Karmazin positioned his venture as a “study” but faced scepticism from the scientific community on efficacy and ethical implications.

An article in The Guardian in 2017 described Ambrosia and its practices as “vampiric”, highlighting the notion of the older generation “sucking the blood of the young”. This reflected ethical concerns around commodification of young blood for the benefit of older individuals.

Plasma transfusions fell out of favour after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned against it in 2019, warning that these treatments had no proven clinical benefits and could pose potential risks to patients.

Karmazin shut down Ambrosia in August 2019 and shifted to a new venture, Ivy Plasma, which aims to provide plasma transfusions without age specifications. 

PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel has invested millions into anti-ageing research, notably through the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that aims to make “90 the new 50 by 2030”. 

So far, if anyone can claim to disrupt the Grim Reaper’s sleep, it may be US venture capitalist and tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. Media reports have called Johnson “almost a billionaire”.

His estimated net worth of about $400m falls short of the billion-dollar mark. Johnson’s wealth primarily stems from the sale of his company, Braintree, to PayPal for $800m in 2013. Johnson reportedly made more than $300m from this transaction, which he invested into ventures. One is Kernel, a company he founded to align with growing recognition of brain health as a key component of healthspan extension.

Johnson has faced as much fascination as scepticism for embarking on an extraordinary quest for immortality.

His personal “Blueprint” life-extension plan encompasses lifestyle changes, medical interventions, scientific explorations and “multigenerational blood-plasma exchange”. Johnson, 46, has received plasma from his son, Talmage, 17. He has donated his own plasma to his father, viewing it as a meaningful way to enhance his father’s health.

Johnson’s dietary regime is extreme, strictly vegan, with meals meticulously planned, focusing on nutrient-dense foods such as broccoli, cauliflower, black lentils and ginger. He avoids indulgence and is quoted as saying that the idea of “cheating” on his diet makes him feel sick.

Johnson takes more than 100 supplements daily, exercises for an hour and has five minutes of “light therapy” each morning, mostly red-light therapy, which is claimed to enhance energy and skin quality. 

Another front-runner in immortality stakes is Russian entrepreneur and multimillionaire Dmitri Itskov, who is best known for ambitious projects aimed at radical life extension and cybernetic immortality. In 2011, he founded the 2045 Initiative, which reads like a science fiction novel. It explores the possibilities of transferring a complete, digital copy of a human’s consciousness into an artificial avatar or robotic body as carrier. The aim is effectively to allow individuals to live beyond their biological bodies.

In SA, longevity medicine and anti-ageing medicine are relatively limited compared with developed countries. Local specialists stay abreast of international advances through continued education and global conferences.

A local leader is clinical pharmacist David Arthur, a graduate of Wits University, who practises at the Longevity Centre in Fourways Design Quarter, which focuses on root causes of disease and illness.

Arthur was the first pharmacist in SA to be board-certified by the American Academy of Anti-Ageing and Regenerative Medicine. He is an advanced fellow and diplomate in anti-ageing and regenerative medicine with the academy. Arthur has extensive medical experience and is educationally partnered with the academy and Metabolic Medical Institute in the US. This allows him to bring this functional medicine to healthcare practitioners and medical doctors in SA. 

Arthur has completed a nutrigenomics course with the department of human nutrition at Wageningen University, Netherlands, linking genomics, nutrition and health research. He recently completed an international module on prescribing compounded mixtures. These include natural supplements as alternatives to prescription medicine and combining natural and prescription medicine to reduce side-effects often associated with conventional drug therapy.

Patients at the Longevity Centre start off consulting Arthur, who devises personalised programmes covering all aspects contributing to wellness. The centre’s practice encompasses extensive blood tests, drug therapies and repurposed pharmaceuticals based on longevity medicine protocols internationally. These include: 

• Rapamycin, used in organ transplantation;

• Metformin, used to treat type-2 diabetes; 

• Cerebrolysin, a neuropeptide drug derived from porcine (pig) brain proteins, primarily used to treat neurological conditions and now being explored for neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive decline; and

• Senolytics, a promising class of therapeutics aimed at selectively eliminating senescent cells, which have ceased to divide and so contribute to ageing and age-related diseases. 

Efficacy of these interventions varies among individuals, Arthur says. When used appropriately, they “contribute positively to extending lifespan and healthspan”. 

As longevity medicine evolves, the science raises questions of ethics and implications of extreme measures in the pursuit of eternal youth — and exorbitant costs involved. The potential for only the wealthy to access life-extending treatments is likely to worsen existing social inequalities. As bioethicists note, if longevity treatments remain available primarily to the rich, the divide between those who can and cannot afford life-saving longevity treatments will become a chasm. 

SA follows international trends, with longevity medicine carrying substantial costs not typically covered by medical aids. With that in mind, Arthur strives to tailor programmes to fit a range of budgets, emphasising lifestyle modifications and preventive measures. 

Johannesburg specialist physician and cardiologist Dr Riaz Motara incorporates longevity medicine into his practice with a prosaic approach. He stresses that there is no set protocol on prolonging lifespan and improving healthspan.   

“There is no replacement for optimal nutrition, regular exercise and mindfulness interventions to maintain optimal health and wellbeing,” Motara says. “Everything else we do is just a bonus.” 

Anyone interested in longevity medicine should consult a physician trained in this field, who fully understands risks and benefits associated with each therapy, Motara says. 

“The true aim of longevity medicine is not to live necessarily longer but to live healthier until we die,” he says.  “Perhaps in some dystopian future we will be able to upload our consciousness and memories into the cloud and choose new bodies as we age. That may be the true elixir for eternal life.”  

Till then, the Grim Reaper can rest easily.