Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Friday June 19 2015, @01:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the immortality-committee dept.

Doctors and scientists want drug regulators and research funding agencies to consider medicines that delay ageing-related disease as legitimate drugs. Such treatments have a physiological basis, researchers say, and could extend a person's healthy years by slowing down the processes that underlie common diseases of ageing — making them worthy of government approval. On 24 June, researchers will meet with regulators from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make the case for a clinical trial designed to show the validity of the approach.

Current treatments for diseases related to ageing "just exchange one disease for another", says physician Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. That is because people treated for one age-related disease often go on to die from another relatively soon thereafter. "What we want to show is that if we delay ageing, that's the best way to delay disease."

takyon: The "pill" in question is the drug metformin, currently used to treat type 2 diabetes under the brand name Glucophage. People with type 2 diabetes will not be enrolled in the anti-aging trial.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday June 19 2015, @04:12AM

    by davester666 (155) on Friday June 19 2015, @04:12AM (#198110)

    It will be patented for this use. And since anyone else manufacturing it can't prevent it from being used for this specific use, they can't sell it until this new patent runs out.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday June 19 2015, @04:48AM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday June 19 2015, @04:48AM (#198117) Journal

    If that was the case, anti-depression supplements like 5-HTP [wikipedia.org] would have studies done, patents granted, and money mined.

    What they'll likely do is reformulate it just slightly to make it a new drug. Since the chemical formula will be different it will get a new patent.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @04:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @04:57AM (#198121)

    See title.