"The most important milestone in the history of longevity biotech" — Archival Interview with Celine Halioua (Founder/CEO of Loyal)

Dec 2, 2023

Celine Halioua, Founder/CEO of Loyal, announced FDA approval for a drug that can extend lifespan, a groundbreaking milestone in longevity biotech. The podcast explores the pursuit of immortality, targeting root causes of aging, challenges in aging research, and a young female founder's experience in the biotech industry.

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INSIGHT

Shifting Aging Narratives Strategically

The immortality narrative helped bring attention but is now counterproductive for drug approval.
Now strategic conservatism and framing aging as preventative medicine is the right path for breakthrough progress.

INSIGHT

Drugs Extend Lifespan Mechanistically

Many drugs extend lifespan in model organisms via damage repair, metabolic fitness, or evolutionary mechanisms.
Targeting conserved aging pathways like metabolic and senescent cell mechanisms shows promise for lifespan extension.

INSIGHT

Regulatory Hurdles in Aging Drugs

Regulatory challenges arise because lifespan extension drug safety must be exceptional for healthy individuals.
FDA weighs the risk of adverse drug effects heavily when approving medicines for long-term preventative use.

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Earlier this week Celine Halioua (ODF2), founder and CEO of Loyal — a dog longevity biotech startup — announced something truly groundbreaking.

Loyal (ODF2) has earned what they believe to be the FDA’s first-ever formal acceptance that a drug can be developed and approved for lifespan extension.

As Celine says in her announcement; “I started Loyal 4 years ago with the explicit goal to get the first drug FDA approved for lifespan extension itself - no disease, just healthy, longer"..."We can't start selling the drug yet - we need to complete the safety and manufacturing technical sections - but this represents the lions share of the 'existential risk' of both the drug program, and of Loyal AKA - we are doing it!!!”

Laura Deming is a longevity biotech investor with an incredible batting average. 5 of 18 startups she’s backed so far have gone public. She was the first investor in Loyal and had this to say:

"This just dropped - the most important milestone in the history of longevity biotech. put simply, this is the FDA’s first-ever formal acceptance that a drug can be developed and approved to extend lifespan. the longevity field is evolving quickly. No one I know in the field would have said this was possible 5 years ago. Celine got it done in 4. It’s a massive win for both biotech founders and regulators, in establishing a pathway by which drugs (initially for dogs) can get approved for lifespan"

You’re about to listen to an archival interview with Celine just one and a half years into starting Loyal which is now 4 years old. It’s an incredible conversation with interviewer Marshall Kosloff and shows just how much can be accomplished in a few short years.

Congrats to Celine and the entire Loyal team on what is truly an unparalleled milestone.

Are you exploring starting a company we’ve got a program for that?

ODF has helped 1k companies like Loyal which was ODF2 get started and go on to raise over $2B. Applications for our 20th cohort in San Francisco are now . Learn more and apply at beondeck.com