Can The Pharmaceutical Companies Use Basic Aging Biology To Develop Drugs For Age-Related Diseases?
The University of Copenhagen in Denmark is a very unique place. Apart from being one of the oldest universities in Scandinavia, it is also one of the top universities in the world. So far, 39 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the University and it sports a spectacular center for healthy aging which hosts the Biology of Aging lab. In September 2021 the University of Copenhagen hosted the 8th annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting.
This year’s ARDD meeting, held at the Ceremonial Hall of the University, was the largest conference on aging and biopharma in the world for the second consecutive year.
The conference, which took place from August 31 to September 3, brought together leaders in the field of longevity research with the focus on aging research, drug discovery and biomarker development. Those who regularly read my articles know that I believe that aging research is the emerging trend in the biopharmaceutical industry. The field is well and truly emerging and ARDD is one of the first conferences to credibly bring together pharmaceutical companies, startups, clinicians, venture capital firms, and representatives from academia to the same table.
The first ARDD meeting was held in 2014 at Basil, Switzerland. Back then, the meeting was known as the Aging Forum and was part of the MipTec and Basel Life congresses. From its inception, the conference was intended to bring together the pharmaceutical industry, leading academics, investors, and startups while maintaining a very high level of scientific credibility, while focusing on the translational potential.Many industry leaders attended that conference, including Novartis Chairman, Dr. Joerg Reinhardt, who gave an excellent presentation showing that aging is a source of many diseases and that we need to study it as a core biological process to be able to address those diseases.
This same year at the Aging Forum, Dr. Joanne Mannick presented her study on the use of everolimus, a close analogue of sirolimus(Rapamycin), and launched a company called ResTORbio which went public in 2018. In 2019, the Phase 3 study of another drug, BEZ235, failed, and in 2020 ResTORbio merged with another company. Dr. Mannick moved to Life Biosciences, another leading company in the field and presented her research at the 8th ARDD. So in its 8 years the conference saw the dawn and dusk of companies and concepts. It is important to fail quickly, recover, and learn.
A lot has changed since the first conference. In 2014, the meeting was attended by around 70 participants. Last year, in 2020, the 7th ARDD meeting exceeded 2,000 participants. This shows how exponentially the participation in our conferences are growing. It also shows how aging research and the longevity industry are gaining more and more interest with each passing year.
This year’s ARDD was also one of the most sponsored conferences in aging research in the world right now with multiple startups and pharmaceutical companies sponsoring, and some of the major academic journals supporting, presenting at, or contributing to the conference. The success of the ARDD did not come overnight. It is a result of hard work and team effort of a large group of dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to make these events successful.
On a personal note, I was very happy to see so many startups, venture funds and pharma companies participating. The conference was the center stage of the year for presenting longevity startups. I was also very pleased to have major journals like Frontiers in Aging, eLife and The Lancet cover the conference.
Experts from all over the world flocked to the conference to talk about various topics. Some of the discussion topics include: biomarkers of aging, epigenetic aging clocks, cell regeneration, etc. Other hot topics included DNA damage and repair.
Some of the startups that presented are BioAge Labs, who presented on clinical-stage therapies that target the molecular causes of aging; Cambrian Biopharma, who showcased the developing acids that are in late preclinical stage targeting hallmarks of aging. Another central topic of the conference was biomarkers of aging, commonly referred to as the aging clocks . Of course, there were many other companies who showcased their research and spoke about the latest developments in the field.
One of the major trends in pretty much every industry is the rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Another trend, which is not so obvious, is the increasing interest in longevity and healthcare from the technology giants and individuals with background in information technology who regularly attend ARDD in person or rely on the online content. To acknowledge this trend, for two years in a row, the ARDD starts with a lecture by one of the fathers of modern AI, and one of the most impactful investors and though leaders, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, who covers both drug discovery and longevity.
This year, the conference added a new element to our conference called the ‘Inspire Longevity Program’ for teenagers who are currently in high school. We hope that through this program, more teenagers will be encouraged to embark on a career in longevity research.
Also, in addition to the Inspire Longevity Program, this year’s event also featured a Longevity Medicine Workshop that brought together many physicians who learned about longevity medicine as a concept. In 2021 over 2,500 physicians registered for the Longevity Medicine course, which also received CME accreditation and was integrated into the Longevity Medicine workshop program.
Despite all of this success, the mission of the ARDD conference has not changed since its inception.
The aim of ARDD is to bridge basic science and clinical research by including the pharma industry; unite leaders in aging research and drug discovery for the advancement of aging interventions; provide support for next generation researchers in their career paths; and serve as a nexus for connecting investors, industry and academia.
Aging research and the longevity industry is rapidly evolving, and over the course of 8 years, it has advanced considerably. Whereas it was great to organize this conference for the 8th year in a row, I also feel like more people should know about it and follow it. The future of aging research and drug discovery is here, and it starts from this conference.
While many of the presentations contained the data presented for the first time, or confidential information and were trimmed or removed, most of the presentations are now available on YouTube and you can follow this link to watch them.
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