Hevolution Foundation, Saudi $ Billions into Anti-Aging

The bad news mentioned in the article cannot be overlooked. They are murders and terrorists. But I do appreciate you pointing that out in overview. A lot of articles wouldn’t even address it.

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Amazingly, the Hevolution Foundation does not have a wikipedia page yet. Would you like to create a Hevolution page?

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Hi - the foundation hasn’t been officially launched yet, and still doesn’t have a website (watch on www.hevolutionfoundation.org over the next few weeks I suspect). I’m sure after they launch someone will create the wiki entry!

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I just poked around on the internet again and discovered that the Hevolution Foundation has, on their board of trustees, the son of a Russian oligarch. Its almost as if someone at the Hevolution Foundation is hinting at a new James Bond Villian movie, describing the plot via their actions but without explicitly saying anything. I’ve added text on this issue in the main posting:

“There is also a Russian Oligarch connection. Evgeny Lebedev, the son of a sanctioned Russian oligarch and former KGB officer, identifies himself as a member of the Hevolution foundation’s Trustees on his UK House of Lords profile. It was reported by The Sunday Times that British security services warned that granting Lebedev a peerage posed a national security risk but Johnson went ahead with it despite the security service assessment. I hope that official news reporters will research what safeguards Hevolution has implemented so that the Russian oligarchs and Putin will not get early access to longevity therapeutics that the Hevolution Foundation funds.”

And they used to have a live website and they took it all down quite recently… which is highly unusual for an organization that seems to have been in existence for well over a year. I hope it was just a work in progress, and that they are working hard at addressing all the governance issues and linkages that seem so problematic, so that they don’t get destroyed by negative press in all the world’s newspapers. Imagine, if you will, “Khashoggi murder” levels of global front page news coverage of the $20 Billion MBS/Pepsi/Russian Oligarch Foundation that, from all intents and purposes, looks to be designed for making royalty, dictators and oligarchs live forever.

If the newspapers want to cover this group with a skeptical eye, as they likely would, the headlines practically write themselves: “Saudi Prince and Russian Oligarchs Launch $20 Billion Manhattan Project to Live, and Stay in Power, Forever”.

My suspicion is that this won’t be well received well by most of the population, especially as ongoing wars are being waged by dictators/oligarchs and royalty in Ukraine and Yemen. Imagine how much backlash this project (as its currently structured) could generate worldwide in popular culture… even in the longevity enthusiast community we already see a large percentage of comments are very negative and critical of the group and their associations.

While the foundation seems to have made a half-hearted effort at positioning the organization as being “benefit all humanity”, most people will interpret this as disingenuous given the people involved and their personal track records. Its hard to take the goal statements at face value while the people who are associated with the organization are seen as responsible for, or affiliated with, the deaths of many tens of thousands of people in unpopular wars, and internal repression. Does anyone truly believe that the royalty and oligarchs have suddenly become concerned about the health and longevity of any other people?

This foundation, as its currently designed and staffed, has the potential to tarnish the entire Longevity Biotech and Geroscience field for a generation, set things back by 50 years in public opinion, and permanently drive away the large public health investments (i.e. NIH/NHS funding) that could really sustain the field in the long term.

If they launch prematurely, without having addressed all the issues and problems that are pretty obvious to anyone who is not in the Hevolution bubble, you could easily have a situation where no respectable longevity scientist will ever want to work with the group. There could be boycotts in many academic institutions just as there have been last month against the minor (in comparison) sexual harassment charges against David Sabatini who was the lead mTOR/rapamycin researcher until recently. You can see it playing out like this: N.Y.U. Will Not Hire Scientist Accused of Harassment After Backlash.

You can see the remnants of the group’s website in google search results when you search on this in google, but you find that all the content has been removed from the website when you click on the links:

If anyone managed to save the files from the Hevolution website before they removed it, please contact me, I’d love to see them.

https://stg.hevolutionfoundation.com

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Longevity Research is important - not because people will live for ever but they would live healthier. The article is also completely out of line describing the CEO credentials - who is a Board Certified Endocrinologist, worked at Premier US Health Center Mayo Clinic, has vast experience in Pharmaceutical industry and an expert in Food Sciences pushing for healthier beverages and snacks. Without getting into politics of human rights and political set up, the entire world including US imports oil from Saudi Arabia. Is Saudi Arabia is moving towards modernization it should be encouraged. At the end of the day the world scientific community will review and accept the results based on authentic findings. If one was to accept your view than no research coming out of China and Russia should be accepted. Let’s keep science and politics apart. And yes those investing in this pivotal work will make loads of money- What’s new there. It’s called Business. Let’s stay positive and not turn scientific ventures into Tabloid news. NI

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Obviously, we are a site for people who use longevity drugs to live longer, healthier lives - so we totally agree that longevity research is important.

Also, while not an explicit goal for most of the longevity biotech or geroscience community, many people who are longevity enthusiasts are working to eliminate aging entirely, as expressed in the concept of “Longevity escape velocity” (LEV)". And its a topic that comes up often when the press talk about longevity science and biotech so I expect it will be associated with this group, as it has been with Calico Labs, Altos Labs, etc…

From an operational standpoint, Dr. Khan may be a fine choice, my criticism is purely from the perspective of Public Relations for the foundation, as it fights to gain some credibility, and overcome the negative associations it has with the Saudi / MBS and other people affiliated with the group.

Dr. Khan’s bio is linked to in the first post here. While he does have years early in his career as a doctor, and 5 years work experience at pharma company Takeda, most of his work experience was at Pepsi (12 years, according to his Linkedin profile). Pepsi is widely viewed as having a negative effect on human health and longevity, or as this business news story notes: A fiery new report makes a convincing case that Big Soda is the new Big Tobacco.

And, Its highly unusual to see any former Pepsi (or Coke for that matter) executives in the health and longevity field as I look at Calico Labs, and Altos Labs, and throughout the Geroscience and Longevity biotech. In fact, in searching through the list of companies I can’t find a single other case of an ex Pepsi or Coke executive leading these organizations. As I said, he may be fine from a management/science perspective, but as the public head of a non-profit focused on health and longevity, it really looks bad. If Dr. Kahn was trying to move Pepsi in a healthier direction than the company is noted for, I would expect some statement of significant achievements towards that goal, but I’ve seen non supplied. I think the public would be equally skeptical of an executive from a cigarette or vaping company, even though there may be some very serious scientists in those companies who really want to help the health and longevity of people. At first glance, It just doesn’t give the public confidence that this person truly cares about human health and longevity.

I think a persuasive case can be made for taking money from the Hevolution group to help people’s health and longevity, but I also think that people’s concerns about the organization and about geroscience and longevity biotech in general, need to be addressed with serious efforts, and not just platitudes. If Hevolution Foundation is serious about its goals and mission, it would be helpful to see significant, concrete steps being taken to address people’s concerns about the organization, its governance, and the potential downsides of geroscience and longevity biotech.

You mention that the entire world imports oil from Saudi Arabia, and that the country’s movements towards modernization should be encouraged. I can see that argument, but this is also what people said about Russia until recently… but people now say that strategy is one of failure, and most western governments are now moving away from that approach, as the negatives seem to outweigh the positives. See this article:

And I’m fine with using information gained from China and Russia (or the Hevolution Foundation, in the case of the Saudis, I’d rather see them put the money into health and longevity than another of his yachts), or mansions, etc as there is more social value) - I’m just not entirely sure that US and European labs and researchers will want to be taking their money, if it looks like the unstated goal of the organization, or the likely outcome, is to first be perpetuating the lives of the dictators, royalty, oligarchs, etc. You also mentioned profits - I think profit making from capital risks taken with startup companies is fine, thats not an issue.

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I read your opinion with a wish that you will present your argument factually. If you look at when Dr. Khan graduated from medical school , it would be abundantly clear that most of Dr. Khan’s professional career has been in highest standard medical care (clinical and research). I refrain from speaking for any corporation including Pepsi. But if you read and review in detail Pepsico efforts during Indra Nooyi’s tenure you would see a focus on a significant move towards healthier products, water conservation, and many environment friendly approaches. This switch in direction by Pepsico under Nooyi was what Dr. Khan was involved in. Pepsi as a beverage had existed long long before either Nooyi or Khan became part of it. You also do not discuss in any detail the pivotal role that Dr. Khan is playing in leading LifeBiosciences which includes the highest ranking academic institutions such as Einstein, Harvard and others. I will always defend your right to have your opinion, but will even more strongly defend the Truth. Your article is selective cherry picking , speculative, and meshes scientific excellence with political opinions. You are clearly a very intelligent man, but I fail to understand why you are taking stands which are at least half baked if not factually completely incorrect. On a side note, we have made significant advances in the United States in research, but also have a fairly ugly history of slavery, genocide of native americans, and racism practiced even today. You and I call such acts wrong without throwing away all the scientific advances. Respectfully.

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Still, it would be great if RapAdmin could do something about the home page so we don’t have to look at that murderer’s face whenever we visit the rapa.news site!!

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This may be all true - I have not looked into Pepsi management and strategy over time, and Dr. Khan’s resume in detail. To be honest, I think the Dr. Khan employment at Pepsi is overall a relatively minor one compared to the much bigger issues of the money coming from MBS/Saudi Family, their history of seemingly being interested only in selective health and longevity for people they like or do good things for them, and the Russian Oligarch affiliations.

Aha! Now we are talking separating science from politics and human rights. So let me take the liberty of continuing our agreement. WE now agree that valid research should be accepted irrespective of funding. Having said that both you and I condemn human rights violations and authoritarian suppression of freedom of speech where ever they might be taking place. But my friend change is coming though very slowly. I believe in Zen Philosophy that when you point a finger in blame towards someone three fingers are pointing towards yourself. Talking about human rights let us start a movement that Jails in US are not privately owned and trying to keep their minimum quota to function the cells are filled with minorities who get the maximum sentences as compared to their other co citizens who are not minority. Let’s take a walk in shelters and homeless population in the streets of New York City. And last but not the least let us make our political leaders not be subservient to the people you have stated as criminals. We have a lot of real work to do right here at our home (US) before we go about changing the world. Respectfully.

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Ah - complete agreement with you on the jails in the US, racial disparities, inequalities, homeless, etc. Yes - we have a ton of work here in the USA, and in all western democracies to do. I just tend to think that, broadly speaking, democracies with free and fair press, tend to do better in these areas than dictatorships and kingdoms.

Oh, and as an aside… I also came across this post by a biologist who attended a recent “Longevity Summit”, and I quote this just to demonstrate how people tend to associate the message with the company (and the company’s history) even if unrelated to the specific case at discussion:

There was also a thought-provoking talk from Antonio Tataranni of PepsiCo, about the role the food and beverage industry has to play in making lifespan-extending interventions (if such things exist) more accessible by putting them in food. This idea has some historical precedent (iodine in table salt, vitamin D in milk, fortified breakfast cereals etc.), but would have sounded better coming from a representative of the USDA, rather than someone working for the second largest food & beverage corporation on the planet, which is partly responsible for our current obesity epidemic.

Generally speaking yes the democracy is the best form of governance. And this is why the issues we highlighted in our own home are even more intolerable because we have sworn to a constitution which promises the higher standards. And how do we even explain Guantanomo Bay and Abu Gharaib Prison atrocities. Let’s agree that we have a capitalistic society with democracy. Capitalism always wins and we keep silent when our allies are involved in the worst atrocities. Too many examples where we sit silently and only provide lip service.

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When the favorite food for at least two prior Presidents (Democrat and Republican) of US is Big Mac, it’s hard to educate otherwise. I think we have to give due respect to Papa John’s oil dripping Pizza. We have become a nation of affluence and will soon be turned into Romans with fat bellies, lots of food and wine, Just prior to the downfall of the Roman Empire. This cycle repeats itself with every dynasty and race.

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The real discussion on this forum should probably be the softly regulated natural compounds versus highly regulated pharmaceuticals in dealing with the process of ageing.

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Appears Nir Barzilai TAME may get started.

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MBS couldn’t give a %&#^$ about his citizens or humanity. Altruism isn’t in his DNA.

“When you’re young you want to be rich, when you’re rich you want to be young”.

Stark naked self preservation. He might be just starting to see some greys.

Agnostic to morals aside, science first, if it leads to interventions that might escape into greater society, bring it on.

We commonly have startup companies in the Silicon Valley that operate in “stealth mode” until they have a product and are ready to launch.

In Saudi Arabia they seem to have the opposite; organizations that are active and working for a few years, then decide to go into stealth if they sniff any potential negative publicity …

I’m not sure why they pulled down their active website, but I’m hoping it is because the are re-organizing the group and fixing the problematic elements of their organization - a board of advisors stacked with family, billionaires, and the son of a Russian oligarch, as well as omissions in terms of addressing the open issues that the public is concerned about longevity research - like potential inequalities, unintended consequences, etc

They mentioned in their Introduction on their website (see below) that they are a “A Transparent Global Organization”… but it seems like their transparency doesn’t go too far if they remove their website as soon as the group is announced at an aging conference. Does this type of behavior give any hope the the group will truly be transparent? Will they address the issues that could give them negative publicity?

It seems that when they pulled down the website they didn’t realize that once things are on the internet, they are usually permanently on the internet… as can be seen from the screen captures I’ve obtained of their old website and included below.

The Board of Trustees seems to be a mix of family and friends of MBS, many coming out of the management and advisors of $450 Billion Saudi Public Investment Fund. I may be missing it, but it there seems to be relatively little expertise in the field of bio/medical, pharma or public health expertise (other than Dr. Khan), so it is not at all the typical type of board you would see in any traditional and well-managed health-focused foundation, where people typically have a long track record in working towards public health improvements. The Hevolution Foundation board of trustees looks much more like a prince getting together with some billionaire and oligarch friends and contacts to fund biotech so that they can live forever. None of the Hevolution board looks to have a history of trying to help anyone but themselves. Look for example, at the boards at the following organizations, and compare it to the Saudi Helevation Foundation board below:

The Gates Foundation:

Mission Statement: Our mission is to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.
Co-chairs and Board of Trustees

The foundation’s leaders come from a broad range of backgrounds and have a diversity of expertise and experience that spans science and technology, medicine, public policy, education, communications, law, and business. Our leaders are guided by the foundation’s mission to create a world in which every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.

The Welcome Trust:

Welcome Trust Mission: Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone.
Welcome Trust Board of Governors

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Mission Statement: HHMI is a nonprofit research organization and philanthropy. Our mission is to advance the discovery and sharing of scientific knowledge to benefit us all. We do this by supporting talented scientists, educators, and students – encouraging them to stay curious, pursue tough scientific questions, and contribute to making science more inclusive.
HHMI Board of Trustees

The Hevolution Foundation:

Stated Mission: “to expand healthy human lifespan for the benefit of all humanity”
Hevolution Board of Trustees:

Hevolution Foundation Management:

Some screen captures of the former/old Hevolution Website:

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Interesting - the group decided to make their old site live again today, after the MIT Tech Review published their article:

https://hevolutionfoundation.com

I hope they address the issues that could hinder the foundation in achieving its stated goals…

Interesting… since they’ve relaunched / reopened their website, I thought I’d go through and see if anything has changed…

Apparently “Transparency” is lower priority now … officially. Though what exactly the term “transparency” means in a monarchy that is famous for lack of transparency is anyone’s guess… Saudi Arabia is one of the least transparent countries in the world…

In the old website (pre-shutdown - see pages above) they had this section higher in their Introduction - but now they’ve moved it to a lower priority (I guess):

A Transparent Global Organization

Hevolution was founded to make these great leaps forward possible. As a non-profit organization devoted to collaboration and sharing information, we seek to democratize science and knowledge, by creating partnerships, offering grants, and making investments in the longevity space.

Our highly experienced management team has assembled a staff of elite scientists, clinicians, grant experts and investment professionals, and is guided by a Board of Trustees and advisory panels comprising thought-leaders from all over the world.

We are dedicated to supporting cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science, particularly applied research, focused on accelerating therapeutic approaches to aging, including drug discovery and delivery in key areas of biology that underpin aging. We are able to fund science to a larger scale and with longer investment horizons than traditional venture capital, and with a more commercial mindset than traditional academic research.

And they added a few more details - such as the $1 Billion annual budget:

Our initial funding comes from a variety of donors, including the government of Saudi Arabia. Our annual budget of up to $1 billion USD enables us to accelerate science and bring therapies to the market.

And the “other donors”? Are the Russian oligarchs in on this? Do Saudi non-profits have to disclose the source of their donations?