The trillion dollar upside to longevity

Graphic:

Excerpt:

This model allowed the researchers to place a monetary value on the financial gain from longer life, better health and changes in the rate at which we age [4,5]. VSL represents the sum of the value of each remaining year of life, discounted to the present day and weighted by the survival rate.

The study revealed that a compression of morbidity that improves health is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy. However, in order to raise economic gains, longevity has to improve too. Slowing down aging reduces the rate at which biological damage occurs and improves both health and mortality.

Publication Date: 16 February 2021

Publication Site: Longevity Technology

All’s Well That Ages Well: The Economic Value of Targeting Aging

Link: https://longevitydividend.london.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/allswell_080121.pdf

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Human lifespans are increasing with advances in medicine, but the economic value of these gains are poorly understood. Based on U.S. data, we show a compression of morbidity that improves health
is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy. However, economic gains to better health diminish unless longevity also improves. Treatments that target aging are hence particularly valuable,
as they produce both healthier and longer lives. We calculate a slowdown in aging that increases life expectancy by one year is worth $38 trillion, and for ten years $367 trillion. Evaluating the impact
of metformin shows targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. Complementarities between health, longevity and age lead to a virtuous circle that means
improvements in aging increase the value of further gains. Aligned with trends in demographics and disease, this implies the gains from age targeting treatments will increase further in the decades ahead.

Author(s): Martin Ellison, Andrew J. Scott, David A. Sinclair

Publication Date: 8 January 2021

Publication Site: London Business School