Longevity and the emerging industry focused on healthy ageing

Human longevity is an emerging industry focused on healthy ageing. The goal is to lengthen the lifespan of people while improving their health, with solutions for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases related to ageing. The industry combines several vital sectors and subsectors — biotech, pharmaceuticals, FinTech and InsurTech among them.

There is a pressing need for government attitudes to shift from an ageing-reactive position — neutralizing the economic burden of the ageing population — all the way to a longevity-proactive position: from treatment to preventive care. That shift is expected to generate massive socioeconomic opportunities, from extending workforce participation to lowering the overall healthcare burden of old-age care.

The US is in the lead, home to over 54% of longevity-focused companies, with Europe second at almost 17% and Asia growing at almost 12%. According to the Longevity Journal, over 400 longevity companies have reached late-stage financing and are expected to start tapping the IPO markets.

Today there are more than a billion people aged 60 and older in the world — enough to populate an entire “7th continent” — and globally the number of seniors is expected to grow by 3.2% every year until 2030. By the end of the century, senior citizens will represent almost a third of the world’s population.

Life expectancy in high-income countries passed 80 years in 2020 and is expected to reach past 90 by the end of the century. AI is increasingly applied to age-related disease — from vision-assistance devices built on VR and AI to AI-driven drug discovery, where platforms have already brought AI-discovered, AI-designed molecules into first clinical studies.

The ultimate objective of longevity is to maintain an optimal state of health and wealth in the later years of life — empowering the middle-aged and senior citizens physically, mentally and financially.