“the world of bits will accelerate the world of atoms” Reid Hoffman
The Rigveda, an ancient Indian text composed between 1500-1000 BCE and composed of 10 volumes has an entire volume dedicated to “somras”, a drink believed to impart immortality. Ancient Indian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations are ripe with mentions of food and drinks believed to grant immortality. Our quest for long and healthy lives is as old as these ancient civilizations.
But let’s start with more recent times and see how we were measuring up at the start of the 20th century. In 1900, global average life expectancy was 32 years. By 2024, global average life expectancy more than doubled to 73.3 years.
Across the world, people are living longer and in 2020, the number of people aged 60 years and older outnumbered children younger than 5 years. By 2030, 1.4 billion people are expected to be 60 years or older and by 2050 this is projected to rise to 2 billion.
We have made great strides in life expectancy. Number of years lived in good health i.e. healthspan is however a different story. On average we can expect to spend 1/5th of our life with morbidity and most often multiple chronic illnesses such as hypertension, joint disease, sensory impairment, metabolic diseases and neurodegeneration.
Image source: McKinsey Health Institute
At 25Bio, our mission is to fund and partner with founders who are passionate about bridging this gap between life expectancy and ‘healthy’ life expectancy. This is the next major frontier in healthcare and a necessity for our ageing world.
Let’s build a future where alzheimer’s and dementia are not devastating diseases, our joints don’t ache as we get older or we are not frail and can live independent lives in our final years. Can we catch diseases even before they fit the conventional definition of the disease and alter or reverse the disease process.
To quote Reid Hoffman “the world of bits will accelerate the world of atoms” and the company or rather companies that unlock the atoms of anti-ageing will reap extraordinary rewards. Our ancestors wrote about it in their texts, we have the tools in our generation to make this a reality.
Swati
25bio.vc
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