Elite gathering in Gstaad: this is how the ultra-rich want to buy eternal life

We are at the Long Life Investors Conference 2022 in Gstaad, we are in the Swiss hotel “Le Grand Bellevue” of 2022. Every autumn, wealthy investors, new entrepreneurs and scientists gather here who see aging as a disease that needs to be cured. They will be returning to Bellevue at the end of September this year.

The figure of the Longevity ensemble is Aubrey de Gray, whose distinctive feature is a long beard. The 60-year-old Briton believes longevity research is about to make a big leap forward. In an interview with “Millionaire” magazine, he explained why he thought the first person to live to 1000 was already born.

De Gray studied computer science at Cambridge University and has been researching the now popular field of artificial intelligence for over three decades. He came to biology through his ex-wife, a British professor of genetics 19 years his senior. De Gray got his PhD from a publication in which he argued that what ultimately kills people is the side effects of metabolism. He wants to change that.

De Gray has no children, but is the father, uncle, and godfather of several longevity research companies. He is of course a regular guest of the Longevity Investors Conference in Gstaad. Also this year, the conference will take place from 27 to 29 September.

Anyone wishing to meet him there must pay at least 4,500 francs for a conference ticket and bring in one million francs of disposable assets to invest in his longevity business. This is what the organizers want.

These are two Swiss entrepreneurs, Marc Bernegger and Tobias Reichmuth. Together they also lead Maximon, a firm that supports founders in the longevity industry. The volume of investments for start-ups has only recently increased to 30 million francs. Four companies have already been funded and established.

Maximom has the company Avea, which offers dietary supplements under its wing. Co-founder and chief product officer is Sophie Chabloz. The 34-year-old Swiss woman completed her master’s degree at ETH in Zurich, specializing in Food Science, Nutrition and Health. In an interview with “Millionaire” magazine two years ago, she talked about what you can do to prolong a healthy lifespan.

First of all, it is about a healthy lifestyle, which includes cold showers, saunas and intermittent fasting. Dietary supplements are also helpful. It is especially confident in nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and resveratrol. Taking them can increase nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) levels in the body to younger levels. This is thought to slow or even reverse aspects of aging and delay the progression of age-related diseases.

Of course, the two main organizers of the conference, Marc Bernegger and Tobias Reichmuth, buy their nutritional supplements from Avea. This also applies to NMN, which Avea recommends on the company website to anyone who has had cancer or has a genetic history in their family. Because it cannot be excluded that taking it can accelerate the development of cancer.

NMN and resveratrol were first introduced and popularized by David Sinclair. The 54-year-old is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology and Aging Studies. An Australian who immigrated to the US and is now a US citizen takes one gram of NMN and one gram of resveratrol each day. Sinclair likes to say in her presentations that her 83-year-old father is doing the same and is in excellent health.

However, there are no empirical studies of the efficacy of NMN and resveratrol in humans. This is true even though a rejuvenating effect can be observed in mice in laboratories.

Extend the life of mice by a quarter

The scientists were also able to detect a rejuvenating effect on microorganisms with treatments other than NMN and resveratrol. For example, rapamycin can extend the lifespan of mice by a quarter. Rapamycin is actually a drug used to shut down the immune system of transplant patients. In this way, they do not reject the new organ.

Even more sinister methods lead to the rejuvenation of mice. Older small rodents have been found to be rejuvenated if they are injected with blood from younger humans.

Interest in young blood, which is said to have a rejuvenating effect

No wonder billionaires in Silicon Valley are interested. Peter Thiel (55), co-founder of PayPal and a former investor in Facebook, said he publicly looked into it a few years ago. However, it is unclear whether the results from mice can be applied to humans. Swiss-born Tony Wyss-Coray, a renowned Stanford University neurology professor and lecturer on the subject that can be watched on YouTube, says there is no evidence that it is effective.

It is much more difficult to provide empirical evidence of a rejuvenating effect in humans than in mice. This is partly because humans have a much longer life expectancy than mice. Such empirical evidence takes much longer.

Old age is not an official disease

Young blood was not an official topic at the Longevity conference in Gstaad, but it was the organizing reason Longevity treatments had a hard time. Authorities do not see aging as a disease, so the argument persists that no drug can be developed to be approved by the relevant authorities – Swissmedic in Switzerland, FDA in the USA.

Among the proponents of longevity research, there are many who are wealthy from crypto assets. They want to prolong their healthy life span. A participant at the 2022 conference in Gstaad said it goes hand in hand with longevity. Many people who live to be 100 today will get sick much later. People also incurred only a third of their health care costs compared to those who would die earlier.

There are also critics at the Longevity Investors Conference

Does all this sound too good to be true? Charles Brenner, who restrained enthusiasm in his presentation at the Longevity Conference 2022, agrees. The 61-year-old says there is only limited evidence of the effectiveness of most promoted longevity therapies. It’s also unlikely that currently known treatments will make you much older than 100 years. Brenner was Chief of Biochemistry at the University of Iowa and is currently Chair of the Alfred E. Mann Family Foundation in the Division of Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center.

Brenner wrote a critical review of Sinclair’s highly successful book, The End of Aging. It was published under the title “A science-based review of the generally world’s bestselling book on aging.” Brenner, for example, doesn’t understand why healthy people should be encouraged to take metformin.

Because it lowers blood sugar, Brenner says it’s a proven remedy for people with adult-onset diabetes. However, since it is an inhibitor of mitochondrial activity, it also weakens the beneficial effects of endurance training and impairs muscle function.

Long-lived company on the stock market

The Longevity community argues that metformin may not only lower blood sugar but also prevent a number of age-related diseases. It is said to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke, among other properties. In an experimental study, subjects said they felt more energetic and had less gray hair than before the study, thanks to their metformin intake.

Brenner has somewhat positioned himself as an outsider in the longevity community, with his overt critique of metformin and other longevity therapies. This is despite the fact that he himself has written studies that talk about its positive effects on NAD+. He is also the chairman of the scientific advisory board of the listed company Chromadex. It’s worth about $120 million on the exchange and sells, among other things, a dietary supplement such as NMN and resveratrol, which contains nicotinamide riboside, which is said to increase NAD+ levels. This improves cell health and resistance, according to the company’s website.

The company’s stock rose in the stock market hype during the pandemic and has now stabilized at a low. Sales are increasing, but the company is still making a loss.