BY PATRICK COX
We are in the midst of an unprecedented change. Life spans have nearly doubled since the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, recent advances in computer technology have had a huge impact on biological sciences, which means this trend will accelerate.
Still, most people think that the process of aging will go on pretty much as it is now. They’re wrong.
Discoveries have been made that will yield radical increases in healthy life expectancies. These biotechnologies will change everything— the way we live… and the way we invest. I write about the most promising of these breakthroughs in Tech Digest (subscribe here for free).
Longer, Healthier Life Spans Require Dramatic Change
Social security programs were implemented when almost no one lived past the age of 65.
Today, these programs won’t survive without radical restructuring. Pension programs designed using old actuarial tables will collapse. Healthcare, our largest financial sector, will barely resemble the current model.
Diseases we fear today will soon become minor issues, and companies that provide traditional treatments will be bankrupted. Why? Artificial intelligence and personalized genome analysis will be the norm.
The public is just starting catch on. Government policymakers and portfolio managers will have to adapt to this new reality. Then, the biotech sector will escape the ghetto status it too often suffers from.
That’s why I’m always on the lookout for signs that opinion leaders are waking up to the coming biotech revolution.
One of the most promising signs was when Silicon Valley’s wealthiest entrepreneurs embraced anti-aging research a few years back. (You might recall headlines like “6 Billionaires Who Want To Live Forever.”)
My impression, though, is that most people view Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, and Larry Page as wealthy eccentrics. With so much money in their bank accounts, people think these men can afford to squander it on costly and unrealistic pet projects.
In fact, I haven’t been impressed by the way they’ve spent their money either. Instead of funding well-validated anti-aging compounds that could be ready in just a few years, they’ve started from scratch.
Some of the research funded by tech billionaires is interesting, but it won’t reach the market for a decade or two. That’s just too long for most people to take seriously.
Plus, we don’t have that much time to rescue Social Security and Medicare. If we don’t cut the cost of age-related disease and prolong healthy working careers soon, the entire system will collapse.
A New Voice Champions the Biotech Solution
British economist Jim Mellon is now beating the biotech drum. European readers are already well-acquainted with him. Mellon has made a billion dollars based on a long series of remarkably accurate financial predictions.
Though his name may not be as well known in the US, sophisticated financial analysts are aware of his track record. In fact, my boss, John Mauldin, is interested in many of the same issues and wrote an endorsement for Mellon’s latest book.
Mellon sees the big macroeconomic picture. Unlike the tech billionaires, he knows what demographic aging and plummeting birthrates are doing to government budgets in Europe and North America.
He also knows that anti-aging biotechnologies are the only way to fix those problems… which means these breakthroughs will eventually be embraced.
Europe’s aging problem is worse than the US’s, so it needs biotech solutions soon. Mellon’s views are getting traction on the continent, and that is very good news for us. It can only help spread the message across to our side of the Atlantic.
Stay in the Loop on Life-Extending Research with Patrick Cox’s Tech Digest
This weekly newsletter by biotech expert Patrick Cox highlights research that is much more advanced than most people know, and the profit potential for investors is vast. Read about the latest breakthroughs—from new, non-invasive cancer treatments to age-reversing nutraceuticals and vaccines that kill any virus–as well as the innovative companies that work on them. Get Tech Digest free in your inbox every Monday.
