The global population is aging. From the Baby Boomers in the United States, all across the European Union, and even extending to Asian nations like Japan and Singapore, almost everywhere you look the population group over 60 years old is growing faster than any other age category. This trend has been referred to as the “Silver Tsunami,” and it’s a demographic shift will have significant impacts around the world.
As the populations of wealthy, developed countries age, there will be massive opportunities for investors in the “longevity industry,” which refers to the companies and market sectors focused on prolonging life and increasing quality of life for people as they age.
This article will take a deeper look at different facets of the longevity industry, highlight some of the most promising areas for investors, and discuss how government policies around the world could impact the sector going forward.
What makes up the longevity industry?
The Aging Analytics Agency has predicted that the global longevity industry as whole will have a market capitalization of around $27 trillion by 2026, up from $17 trillion in 2019. Several different sub-sectors make up the larger longevity field, including biotechnology, P4 medicine, and Age Tech. Each of these individual industries is substantial on its own, and each present their own growth and investment opportunities
Biotechnology
The field that occurs to most people when they first think about the longevity industry is biotechnology. Medical advances help us live longer and healthier lives, and at the frontiers of medicine we have emerging technologies like stem cell therapy, senolytics, and “young” blood transfusions that hold promise for helping to delay aging and mitigate its negative effects. The global biotech market is massive and one estimate from Grand View Research projects that it will reach $2.88 trillion by 2028. Investing News identifies Merck as the largest single biotech company, with a market capitalization of nearly $200 billion. Pfizer is a close second with a market cap of $191.7 billion – and that figure was before the New York-based company produced one of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines. The growing field of biotechnology is an extremely active area for investment for both individuals and firms. For example, in 2021 the “company creation engine” Illumina Accelerator invested in nine new genomics companies, split between the U.S. and the UK – and that’s just one of a number of investment agencies promoting and looking to capitalize on the biotechnology market.
P4 Medicine
While biotech focuses on emerging technologies and treatments, the term “P4 medicine” refers to a shift in how health care is currently applied. P4 medicine is predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory. As described by Providence Health, P4 medicine is a new way of looking at health care. It uses techniques like genetic testing to identify health risks before they manifest, implementing preventative treatments early on, and providing patients with ample data about their own health so they are better able to make decisions about it. Though P4 medicine as a practice can be appealing to patients of all ages, it becomes more relevant as people live longer, and age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s become critical health concerns for more of the population. Many of the hottest longevity industry companies fall into the P4 medicine category, and investors would be wise to keep a close eye on them. Companies to watch include Leucadia Therapeutics (currently in the seed funding stage), which is developing ways to predict who will get Alzheimer’s and begin treating the disease before cognitive impairment develops, and Insilico Medicine (at the later stages of VC funding), which uses AI to speed up the development of new specialized drugs, and has already had success treating lung conditions that affect the elderly.
