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Some housekeeping:
Patrick and I have decided to pause the podcast. The reason for this is simple: we spend too much time on a product that reaches too few people. We might return to it, we might not.
Time will instead be spent on making a new format especially for Youtube, as we’ve seen encouraging growth there in terms of subscribers. It will likely take a few months to launch though.
I’m working on new stuff that is LEVITY adjacent but not LEVITY. I’m really excited about those projects but they’ll also take a little while before they’re ready.
In the meantime the LEVITY newsletter will arrive in your inbox at roughly the same pace as before. Once or twice a week, excluding holidays.
A year in longevity: What I agree with—and what I don’t
The Lifespan Research Institute recently published a great roundup of 2025, bringing together some of the most powerful voices in the longevity field. It covers a lot.
What struck me was how much of what’s discussed there has also been covered by LEVITY over the past year, in one form or another. That’s a relief.
Now, rather than doing a conventional year-in-review, I’m using this post as a kind of meta-commentary on Lifespan’s article. A reaction to their roundup that, indirectly, also reflects where we’ve been in 2025.
One thing I agreed on
AI gets serious about biology. Almost every major AI lab head – Dario, Demis, Sam – has longevity as a core motivation for their work. We’ve already seen AI solve protein folding, so what’s next? Perhaps virtual cells? Lots of hype in 2025, but still early. Gen-AI drugs? The first bets there are advancing in the clinic. The rate of progress of AI in jagged domains is likely to continue, and I’m curious to see what miracle the silicon gods will perform next.
You may know by now that I’m more bullish than most on the potential impact on longevity when AI is combined with biotech. And it’s certainly not just about models of biology - what Nathan refers to as virtual cells - but about the increasingly powerful ways of automating science itself.
It may even be that the single most important factor for solving aging as fast as possible has to do with something that “Dario, Demis, Sam” currently view as even more important than longevity: automating AI research. It’s no secret that the major AI labs are working feverishly on this, and that we’re already getting glimpses - and plenty of rumors - of real progress.
The motivation is straightforward. A fully autonomous AI researcher - or a billion of them - could be used to build more powerful AI models. Those, in turn, could be deployed as even better AI researchers. Get that flywheel going, and you’re edging closer to Demis Hassabis’ vision of solving intelligence in order to solve everything else.
One thing I disagreed on
Okay, maybe this is a bit of a cop-out. I don’t outright disagree with what many in the article point to as progress - namely, big pharma taking a much keener interest in the biology of aging, buoyed by the immense impact of GLP-1 agonists. But I do have reservations.
Before getting into those, let’s first look at what the interviewees actually said:
Longevity biotech exceeded my expectations in 2025 in how quickly it went mainstream within big pharma, largely because the GLP‑1 era made it obvious that metabolism, inflammation, and aging biology are deeply connected. […] I was surprised in a good way by how quickly big pharma and the government started treating longevity biology as a core R&D strategy. Lilly and Novo pushed their GLP‑1 ambitions well beyond weight loss and embraced the “longevity” label.
Remember, this is Kristen Fortney, who not only runs a longevity biotech, but one that signed a multi-year Novartis collaboration worth up to $530 million. Suffice it to say she knows more about this than I do. Just wanted to acknowledge that.
Big Pharma’s interest in longevity surprised me. I had the standard model in my head: pharma is conservative, waits for de-risked assets, and acquires rather than innovates. Then at ARDD 2025, representatives from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stood up and suggested GLP-1s (like semaglutide) are longevity drugs. Whether that’s true is debatable. What matters is the vibe shift.
Big pharma companies talking about and explicitly devoting resources to aging programs became much clearer in 2025. Their presence and explicitness in talking about aging at ARDD, such as specifically addressing it with respect to GLP-1 drugs, was much more direct than in prior years. It’s become clear that several big pharma companies are supporting the subsector.
What really rubs me the wrong way is the tendency to call GLP-1s “longevity drugs.” Longevity is sometimes a useful shorthand, but more often it blurs important distinctions. And it isn’t something you can easily quantify. I mean, are pharma companies actually claiming that GLP-1s will make people live longer? Of course not - because they don’t know that.
If we’re going to use the term seriously, true longevity drugs should be rejuvenative in ways that are measurable, not merely associated with better metabolic risk profiles.
One thing that surprised me
Let’s return right away to big pharma.
GLP-1 agonists made Eli Lilly the first pharma ever to hit $1 trillion USD in market cap. That success rewired how pharma thinks about markets. The old model was to find people with a disease and treat it. The new model is to find the largest possible patient population and prevent disease. Listen to Dave Ricks on the Stripe podcast. Eli Lilly’s CEO sounds like a tech founder – talking direct-to-consumer models, AI partnerships with NVIDIA. The most conservative industry in healthcare is suddenly hungry for what’s next, and after obesity, what’s next is aging.
Calling something a longevity drug does nothing for me. But here Nathan talks about an industry starting to get their priorities straight and reinventing itself, which I wasn’t really aware of. I hope he’s right.
The thing that gives me hope
Jean Hébert’s FRONT program launching at ARPA-H, easily. On the surface, it’s a US government program using stem cells and tissue engineering to repair brain damage. Few understand that this is actually an opening shot on goal to solve aging in the brain, not just slow aging or target one hallmark. FRONT is a significantly funded moonshot, and it will catalyze substantial matching private investment in replacement therapies.
It’s incredible* that the well-funded moonshot factory ARPA-H has placed several Vitalism-aligned people in key roles - and is now running at least two programs squarely aimed at tackling aging. I covered PROSPR about a year ago, but LEVITY hasn’t paid nearly enough attention to FRONT. Let’s fix that this year.
* Well, in a more enlightened world this wouldn’t be incredible at all - it would be entirely obvious.
The thing I suspect might be overrated
What exceeded expectations was Washington. I didn’t anticipate the new administration being so explicitly pro-longevity. Jim O’Neill appointed as HHS Deputy Secretary, Dr. Oz at CMS, the new NIH and FDA leadership – each is knowledgeable on longevity and/or an outright advocate. The recent MAHA summit in DC had a panel on age reversal in the brain.
Those of us focused on longevity can’t afford to be picky. We welcome pro-longevity actors in the highest levels of government - even when they’re embedded in the craziest administration in history.
That said, I’m far less interested in what O’Neill or Dr. Oz say or believe than in what they actually do and deliver. And so far, I remain unconvinced.
The missing piece
Given that none of the interviewees (as far as I can tell) are directly involved in the DeSci space, it’s probably not surprising that decentralized science wasn’t mentioned at all.
Still, DeSci represents an alternative venue - one that isn’t constrained by the conventional academic or pharma pipeline. Dozens of projects are already underway, many of which would likely never have gotten off the ground through traditional routes. The biostasis experiment CryoRat is one of the more noteworthy examples.
The interventions
Scattered across the article were several noteworthy mentions of interventions in various stages of approval. I let ChatGPT put together a list - what they are, what they do and what was said about them:
Forzinity (elamipretide / SS-31) — Mitochondria-targeted peptide; mitochondria dysfunction is implicated across age-linked disease; FDA accelerated approval (Barth syndrome, Sept 2025). Karl Pfleger: highlights it as notable “first” major mitochondria-therapeutic approval and expects wider applicability.
Insilico TNIK inhibitor (rentosertib / INS018_055) — Small-molecule TNIK inhibitor for fibrosis; fibrosis is a major age-related pathology; Phase 2a IPF data published (Nature Medicine, 2025); next-stage trials pending. Jamie Justice* (Executive Director, XPRIZE Healthspan): calls it the biggest 2025 breakthrough: AI → target → molecule → accelerated pipeline → “successful Phase 2a” in IPF. Kristen Fortney: lists Insilico’s TNIK inhibitor as a 2026 clinical milestone to look out for.
* We’ve had both Jamie Justice and Insilico’s Alex Zhavoronkov on the podcast.
Apitegromab (Scholar Rock; anti-myostatin / pro-myostatin pathway) — Muscle-preservation biology; muscle loss/frailty is central to aging; FDA CRL tied to third-party manufacturing issues (Catalent), despite positive Phase 3 signal; resubmission planned. Karl Pfleger: flags the manufacturing setback delaying approval “despite positive Phase 3 trial data,” calling it hopefully temporary.
Efruxifermin (Akero → Novo Nordisk; FGF21 analogue) — Metabolic/fibrosis pathway; links to aging biology via inflammation and organ fibrosis; Novo completed acquisition of Akero (Dec 9, 2025); efruxifermin remains in Phase 3 MASH development. Kristen Fortney: calls this part of the “FGF21 moment” where big pharma “bought the class,” validating a longevity-relevant pathway.
Pegozafermin (89bio → Roche; FGF21 analogue) — Metabolic + anti-fibrotic liver biology; relevant to age-linked cardiometabolic disease; Roche deal announced Sept 2025 and moved to completion steps by late Oct 2025. Kristen Fortney: includes Roche/89bio in the “FGF21 moment,” framing it as ~$10B validation of a key pathway.
Efimosfermin alfa (Boston Pharma → GSK; FGF21-related) — Targets steatotic liver disease progression; age-associated metabolic decline/fibrosis relevance; GSK completed acquisition (July 2025); described as “Phase III-ready”. Kristen Fortney: includes GSK/Boston Pharma as part of the “FGF21 moment” class-level validation.
“NewAmsterdam’s CETP inhibitor” (obicetrapib) — LDL-lowering via CETP inhibition; atherosclerosis is strongly age-driven; pivotal Phase 3 program reported; EMA review accepted (MAA) with decision expected in 2H 2026. Kristen Fortney: lists “NewAmsterdam’s CETP inhibitor” as a 2026 clinical milestone on the horizon.
BioAge NLRP3 inhibitor (BGE-102) — Brain-penetrant NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor; chronic inflammation is a core age-linked process; positive interim Phase 1 (hsCRP reduction); Phase 2a planned 1H 2026. Kristen Fortney: lists “NLRP3 inhibitors (including BioAge’s)” as a 2026 milestone.
Life Biosciences epigenetic reprogramming therapeutic (ER-100; OSK gene therapy) — Partial reprogramming concept; relevant as a test of “rejuvenation” modality; first-in-human Phase 1 registered (optic neuropathies; posted Dec 2025). Jamie Justice: says Life Biosciences “launches its epigenetic reprogramming therapeutic in trials.” Karl Pfleger: separately points to big financings/valuations of Life Bio (and peers) as a major 2025 signal.
And with that out of the way - let’s turn our attention to 2026! LEVITY will be there to cover all the major stuff.
Best,
/Peter
