Researchers propose protocol for standardizing lifespan studies to derisk drug development and accelerate discovery of geroprotectors.
A recent paper published in Aging and Disease suggests that biotech and pharma companies may be missing out on the opportunity to derisk drug development, while simultaneously advancing longevity research. The paper presents a standardized foundation for integrating longevity assessments into routine drug development, offering the potential to uncover long-term risks or benefits that traditional toxicology studies may overlook.
Scientists from longevity biotechs including Insilico Medicine and BioAge Labs teamed up with academic researchers to address a critical gap in aging research: the lack of standardized methodologies for conducting mouse longevity studies, which are foundational for evaluating the efficacy of potential antiaging interventions in preclinical settings. They propose that integrating standardized mouse longevity studies into early-stage drug development could provide critical insights into the effects of candidate compounds on both lifespan and healthspan, potentially identifying drugs that not only treat disease but also slow the aging process itself.
“Imagine that every time you were doing IND-enabling studies, you could also run a lifespan study in mice,” said the paper’s lead author, Insilico CEO Alex Zhavaronkov. “Every pharma program hits the 12-month IND-enabling window. Why not use that same year to run a parallel mouse lifespan study?”
The paper highlights that, despite the increasing recognition of aging as a major factor in chronic disease, mouse lifespan studies have not traditionally played a role in preclinical drug development. In fact, the researchers claim that no biotech company has conducted a full mouse lifespan study for a therapeutic prior to human clinical trials, even though many approved drugs are intended for chronic, long-term use in humans.
The paper suggests this gap is not due to a lack of scientific interest, but rather to several practical and systemic barriers. Chief among these is the absence of standardized protocols for incorporating mouse lifespan studies into the drug development pipeline, making it difficult to compare results across studies or to justify the investment required for such long-term experiments. The paper’s authors argue that this oversight may result in missed opportunities to uncover long-term risks or benefits of therapeutics, particularly those intended for lifelong use.
By establishing a clear, scalable protocol, the researchers aim to lower the barriers to mouse lifespan studies and encourage their broader adoption, ultimately supporting the development of safer, more effective therapies for age-related diseases. The framework presents a practical approach to systematically evaluate long-term effects of drug candidates, uncovering risks or benefits that conventional toxicology studies may miss. The researchers suggest that broader adoption of such a protocol could facilitate the development of safer, more effective treatments for chronic conditions, and help accelerate the discovery of geroprotectors – drugs that slow the biological aging process.
“Standardizing lifespan studies gives drug developers a clear, practical blueprint for testing whether their molecules can influence aging biology,” BioAge Labs’ CEO Kristen Fortney, a co-author of the paper, told us. “The cost-benefit equation becomes compelling when you consider that discovering geroprotective effects could dramatically expand a drug’s addressable market.”
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