The Politics of Longevity

In this week's episode, Dylan Livingston discusses his work with the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, focusing on advocating for longevity science in the political arena. He emphasizes the importance of aligning with different political perspectives to promote the field's growth and the need for more foundational research and FDA support. Dylan also highlights the economic and health benefits of advancing longevity science and calls for public involvement in political advocacy to drive change in health policy and research funding.

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Key Moments
“Alliance for Longevity Initiatives is a5001c for nonprofit organization focused on representing the longevity, biotech industry and general movement on Capitol Hill.”

“This is the next generation of health care. And, you know, it's their job as members of Congress to support and spread awareness around this topic and ultimately try to push more resources towards this effort.”

“You know, this is a major driver of economic growth. Right. I'm sure you have seen the longevity dividend argument, which, you know, the latest iteration argues, I think, $37 trillion in GDP gains for one extra healthy year of life expectancy–and even if that's off by, you know, 90%, that's still a, you know, $3.7 trillion is still worth pursuing.”

“So really right now, there are two or three major asks that I know will help the longevity industry and thus I believe, increase healthy lifespan in the U.S. First and foremost, there needs to be more foundational research for this space in geroscience in general from the federal government. I believe in 2023, 0.6% of the budget went to geroscience research at the NIH and aging is responsible for 70% of daily deaths. The second thing we want to get done is we want to help or really we want to help companies better design clinical trials through guidance from the FDA and support through congressional action. So those are the two big wishlist items you know, ultimately what we'd like to see in the long term, maybe medium long term, is a longevity initiatives bill.”

Connect with Dylan

Alliance for Longevity Initiatives

LinkedIn

Transcript

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