Entrepreneur and bestselling author Peter Diamandis today announced a new XPRIZE—a $101 million global competition for technologies that combat aging and extend health span.
Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, which creates incentives for technological and health innovation, introduced the first competition of its scale for reducing biological age at the Global Healthspan Summit in Saudi Arabia sponsored by Hevolution, a nonprofit investing in aging research.
“I hope we will see breakthroughs for extended life and health span,” says Diamandis, calling for researchers, technologists, physicians, and AI experts, among others, to participate.
The multimillion-dollar competition will ask teams to test and verify therapeutics that can restore a decade of muscle, immune, and cognitive functioning for people age 65 to 80 in one year or less. Judges will assess participants’ muscle, immune, and cognitive function before and after the therapeutic.
“The team has got to deliver a minimum of a 10-year restoration of function with a target of 20 years,” Diamandis tells Fortune. “We’re talking about the potential for therapeutics to have a massive impact on humanity.” A 2021 study found that one extra year of life expectancy due to slowed aging equates to $38 trillion in economic gain.
The goal of the competition is to extend health span, the number of years people live healthy and free of disease. Experts have estimated that the health span and life span gap is about a decade or more—meaning people live the last of their lives disabled and in pain.
“Regaining muscle function is one of the key elements because it gives you mobility and the ability to navigate and enjoy life,” Diamandis says.
He adds, “The two most powerful capabilities are the universal human brain and the human immune system.”
Diamandis predicts teams will use gene therapies, epigenetic reprogramming, stem cell therapies—or a combination—to deliver results.
“We’ve extended [life expectancy] over the last century from antibiotics, better sanitation, pasteurization, all kinds of things like that,” he says. As the number of people 65 and older will more than double in the next 40 years, and more people have an extra third tacked onto their later years, Diamandis feels there’s no better XPRIZE for the current moment. “I think it is science that’s going to enable us to continue to extend it.”
The future of longevity
More entrepreneurs, physicians, and researchers are getting into the $26 billion business of longevity to find ways to reduce biological age and extend health span. The proven lifestyle interventions for extending health span and living longer include routine exercise, stress management, a balanced diet, and connecting with others. Some are arguing, though, that more is on the horizon.
“If I’m 62 right now, my mission is to do everything I can to give myself those extra decades to intercept those technologies coming our way,” Diamandis says.
Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, is one of the major investors in the competition. He was recently diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, which causes muscle loss and weakness, and founded and a non-profit called SOLVE FSHD. He is adding a bonus of $10 million to any team that can target his specific condition, Diamandis says. Dr. Andrea Maier, director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University of Singapore, and George Church, the cofounder of Eugit Therapeutics, plan to compete thus far.
While expensive novel treatments for aging are not widely accessible, Diamandis hopes the findings of XPRIZE will eventually scale for the masses.
“You’re going to have this extra decade or two in your life. Do you go back and start a company? Do you go back to school? See the world?” Diamandis says. “What do we do with this extra chapter of life that’s coming?”
