On December 14, 2015 Newsweek, featured insights from AFAR Executive Director Stephanie Lederman and Deputy Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD’ on what the Taming Aging with Metformin (TAME) study means for pharmaceutical companies and the public.
While news sources worldwide have dubbed Metformin as the “fountain of youth” that could extend human lifespan, Newsweek emphasized that TAME’s goal is extending healthspan and providing “proof of concept” for drug interventions into the biology of aging. As Dr. Barzilai stated, the goal of the study is “to convince the FDA that aging can be targeted.”
The TAME trial cannot get off the ground without a large capital investment, which due to the low cost of generic metformin and the possibility that this study could help reduce the number of drugs taken by individual patients, pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in this project. However, Lederman feels that investment in TAME could be a win for the industry. By identifying aging as a target for intervention, pharmaceutical companies would have incentive to develop more effective, and profitable, age-targeting treatments.
Nir Barzilai, MD, is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a two-time AFAR grant recipient.
