Matt recently attended the 52nd annual meeting of the American Aging Association (AGE) in Madison, Wisconsin and met with several people doing fascinating work in or adjacent to the geroscience field. His last guest from the AGE meeting is David Scieszka, a longevity entrepreneur with a unique background that includes work as a PsyOps specialist for the US Army. David is currently working on Vertical Longevity Pharma, a senolytics company that he spun out from his postdoctoral work. He previously lead multiomics efforts at the biotech startup Norvoc Biosciences. David holds a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, which he did concurrently with an MBA at the UNM School of Management. In this episode, Dave and Matt give us a peek into the drug development process (TL;DR: it isn’t straightforward or cheap), from facing investor skepticism to considering endpoints, dosage, and potential side effects to collecting rigorous preclinical data that will satisfy requirements for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. They also chat about further opportunities for the drug’s use in companion animals, a demographic that would also enable a potentially faster path to FDA approval.
.0:00 Introduction
1:00 How David became interested in geroscience and longevity
3:37 About the paper that inspired David’s company
6:17 How David’s company is moving forward
7:38 Why aren’t more people using the GMP for the senolytic David’s company is developing?
8:04 Dealing with investor skepticism
9:20 Would the senolytic cause hair regrowth?
9:50 Which endpoints is David considering as targets
12:10 Could the drug work as a topical therapeutic?
12:27 Assuming FDA approval, what might dosage look like?
13:12 Getting around the reality that the aged immune system doesn’t respond well to vaccines
14:06 Which side effects might David worry about?
16:10 Potential opportunity in companion animals
17:24 Wrapping up