The latest longevity updates from our investment news desk.
Longevica seeking $10m for longevity research
Life-extension research company Longevica says it is seeking $10 million in funding to support its research. The company uses scientific data derived from fundamental experiments and comprehensive models to drive its mission: to slow down aging, postpone age-related diseases, and ultimately eliminate them.
Following 14 years of research and $15 million in financing, Longevica says it is now “poised to complete” its aging research.
“The truth is that we as humanity have a mission,” says Alexander Chikunov, founder of Longevica. “After years of research, we still don’t understand the mechanisms that would enable us to move the survival curve to the right, meaning extending life span, even in mice. This research will be able to answer many if not all questions regarding life extension, bringing it out of a world of myth into reality. We plan on being able to turn our focus towards human life extension in our future research.”
Biophytis applies for early access authorization
French age-targeting biotech Biophytis announced that it has filed an application for Early Access Authorization (EAA) in France for the use of its drug candidate Sarconeos (BIO101)1 as a treatment for a severe form of COVID-19. The application was filed with the French National Authority for Health (HAS) through the company’s pharmaceutical partner Intsel Chimos.
If the application is approved by the HAS, the early access program will allow certain patients with severe forms of COVID-19 to be treated in France with Sarconeos (BIO101), while awaiting conditional marketing authorization in Europe. Biophytis expects a response by Q3 2023 at the latest, depending on the delays taken by the HAS, and the first patients could be treated as early as Q4 2023. The industrial scale production of Sarconeos (BIO101) has been initiated to be able to treat up to 6,000 patients if the EAA is approved.
“We have demonstrated, through the positive results of the COVA study, a statistically significant 44% reduction in the risk of respiratory failure or early death,” said Stanislas Veillet, CEO of Biophytis. “With the submission of our application for the early access program, we therefore intend to accelerate the availability in France of Sarconeos (BIO101) to hospitalized patients with severe forms of COVID-19 via our partner Intsel Chimos.”
Recursion to house life sciences incubator
Clinical stage TechBio company Recursion announced its recently expanded headquarters will house Altitude Lab’s incubator program. Operated by The Recursion Foundation, Altitude Lab was founded to help build a robust life sciences ecosystem in Salt Lake City by supporting early-stage startups and historically underrepresented founders. The lab has incubated 17 startups to date, which have successfully secured more than $92 million in seed financing.
The new facility will provide over 15,000 square feet of incubation space which includes shared and private labs, tissue culture facilities, over $1 million in molecular and cell biology tools, and extensive site services to manage equipment and train resident scientists.
“In our new facility, Altitude Lab continues to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship and increase racial and gender representation in health care innovation,” said Chandana Haque, executive director of Altitude Lab. “Vestar has been a great partner to help us get our new location up and running quickly. We are now rapidly scaling our entrepreneurial resources, lab facility, and ability to connect our community and investor network to accelerate Utah’s health care economy.”
VitaDAO teams up with DeSci Japan
Longevity-focused decentralized organization VitaDAO has partnered with DeSci Japan to build a comprehensive research and development ecosystem in Japan. The collaboration aims to democratize longevity research, creating a more inclusive and collaborative scientific landscape.
The partners are co-hosting an inaugural event on June 6th to bring together researchers and managers within the R&D ecosystem to pioneer a new era in longevity research through democratic engagement. The gathering aims to foster medium- to long-term collaborative engagements between DeSci and the broader R&D community in Japan.
