Two Clinical Trials Test Cheap Pills to Extend Life (Worth)

#1

Long speculated to slow or even reverse aging in off-label use, the generic drugs metformin and rapamycin are getting formal clinical trials this year.

Humans have been cheating death for centuries—with average lifespans in the U.S. jumping over 20% in just the past century. We’ve redefined the average lifespan through a combination of common sense (don’t smoke) and groundbreaking-turned-routine science (vaccines, mammograms). But less so with extreme lifespan. Sophocles died at 90; Ramses II lived at least that long. (One person made it past 120 in modern times.)

Now scientists are asking if we can extend lives even farther, or at least make 90, 100, even 120 routine. There are odd tales of hyperbaric chambers, offshore stem cell injections, and even blood infusions from teenagers. However, most antiaging advocates are focused more on extending the number of healthy years.

Cheap Pills for Life Extension

If you think this is sci-fi and expensive, think again. Two leading candidates (and I stress the word “candidates”) for health or life extension are generic drugs that sell for pennies per pill. You don’t need a university lab or elite clinic to the stars to access them. Just a doctor willing to write a prescription—and quite a few are. The two most-popular of these drugs are metformin, which diabetics take to lower blood sugar, and rapamycin, which transplant patients take to prevent organ rejection.

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#2

I haven’t been looking very closely but was horrified to see the TAME trial — of which i have been reading could be the panacea of longevity since the first Nir paper describing TAME’s design in 2016 — hasn’t yet started!

If the money comes through, TAME could begin in the next year or two; from that point, the trial is expected to last six years. From the evidence we reviewed in the earlier posts in this series, it seems likely that the trial will end with a whimper: a few cases of diabetes will be prevented, but with no substantial effect on the multimorbidity of aging. Some metformin enthusiasts will grasp fiercely at some straw that will be plucked out of a fishing expedition conducted after the fact, but few in the prolongevist community and fewer scientists will consider it an important contender as a longevity therapeutic.

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#3

It hasn’t started yet because they’ve been unable to raise the money for the trial.

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#4

In a society flooded with money, it gives you pause. But could it also be the design of the study, does not excite people, more to the point, people with money?

#5

They need $80 million to distribute a pennies-a-day out-of-patent drug and administer blood tests??? I don’t get the clinical trial industrial complex.

I had read he got $40 million in 2023 from someone “which will make a great story” but i guess he needs more.

#6

Am underlying problem is that there is good evidence for humans to take rapamycin. There is uncertainty about dosing and timing. OTOH There is not good evidence for taking metformin if people are not diabetic.

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#7

That may be the issue, the clinical data so far isn’t super exciting for metformin. The TAME trial is largely seen as a “safe” first effort where a clinical trial targets aging (because the side effects are well known and relatively minor). It seems the people with the money are much more excited about cellular reprograming and are therefore investing in things like Altos and Calico.

The small incremental benefits of metformin don’t seem to get the funders excited about donating.

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