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Education only. Not investment or medical advice.
What you'll learn today:
Why BioAge trades below its cash, and what its next trial tests
Pig kidneys in an FDA trial, from a company earning $1.3B a year
Longevity 101: what each trial phase actually proves, and how to use it before you buy
Plus: an investor tip, quick hits and dated milestones
Read time: 5 minutes
Longevity Biotechs On The Move
INFLAMMATION
BioAge Now Trades Below Its Cash. Here Is What Its Next Trial Tests.
EverLife: Could it add healthy years? BioAge's BGE-102 is a pill that blocks NLRP3, a switch behind the low-grade inflammation that rises with age. In Phase 1 it cut hsCRP, a heart-risk blood marker, by a median 86%. Is the business strong? It has cash: $381.3M in cash and securities on June 30, which it says lasts through 2029.
Key Points:
July 31: shares fell about 60% in one day after Novo Nordisk's ZEUS trial of a different anti-inflammation drug failed
ZEUS (6,300+ heart patients) lowered hsCRP but did not reduce heart attacks or strokes
BioAge's own Phase 2 (QUELL-CV, about 160 adults with obesity and high inflammation) reports in the second half of 2026
Research deals with Novartis and Lilly
Details: On Oct 19 its market value was about $229M, below that June 30 cash, which implies a negative enterprise value (market value minus cash) on those figures. Some of that cash has been spent since June 30. Phase 1 was small, about 15 people per dose, with no serious side effects. BioAge stopped an earlier drug, azelaprag, in 2024 after liver-safety signals.
Where it trades: US (NASDAQ: BIOA), available at most US and Canadian brokers.
What it means for your health: ZEUS showed that lowering hsCRP alone doesn't prove fewer heart attacks, which also applies to Monte Rosa's 85% hsCRP cut in Monday's issue. BGE-102 acts further upstream than Novo's drug, so its Phase 2 tests whether that difference matters.
What it means for your money: The Phase 2 readout is what the market is waiting on. Cash can still be spent down if results disappoint, so a low valuation is not the same as low risk.
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DOG LONGEVITY
A Dog Pill Is One FDA Step From Becoming The First Drug Approved To Extend Life
EverLife: Could it add healthy years? Loyal's LOY-002 is a daily pill for senior dogs that mimics some effects of eating less. Dogs age like us in fast-forward, so it's the quickest real-world test of an anti-aging drug. Is the business strong? A $100M Series C in February brought its total funding past $250M.
Key Points:
2 of 3 major FDA sections accepted for conditional approval
STAY study: 1,300 dogs at about 70 clinics, built to detect 1+ extra year of life
Final section, manufacturing, expected to be reviewed in 2027
Details: Conditional approval would let Loyal sell the pill while the 4-year-plus STAY study finishes. Separately, a Science study of 894 dogs found bigger and male dogs show faster DNA aging, and older-than-expected readings predicted earlier death.
Where it trades: Private, so most readers can't invest yet.
What it means for your health: The payoff is indirect: if a metabolism-targeting pill extends dogs' healthy lives, it strengthens the case for testing similar drugs in people.
What it means for your money: No drug has ever been approved to extend lifespan in any species, so a first would give the whole field a business model to point to.
ORGAN REPLACEMENT
Pig Kidneys Are Now In An FDA Trial. The Company Behind Them Earns $1.3B A Year.
EverLife: Could it add healthy years? United Therapeutics grows gene-edited pigs whose kidneys are designed to work in people, aiming to end the wait for a donor organ. Is the business strong? Yes: its lung-disease drugs brought in $3.15B of revenue and $1.31B of profit over the last 12 months.
Key Points:
FDA trial (EXPAND) started with a first transplant in late 2025: 6 patients first, up to 50, designed to support approval
A second pig-kidney trial, which adds pig thymus tissue to help the body accept the organ, was cleared in August 2025
Its first germ-free pig facility can supply up to 125 organs a year, with two more under construction
Details: No trial results have been published yet. Before the trial, two of its pig kidneys worked in patients for 47 days and over four months, and two pig-heart recipients lived about six weeks and two months.
Where it trades: US (NASDAQ: UTHR), available at most US and Canadian brokers.
What it means for your health: A kidney made on demand could help the tens of thousands of people waiting years for a donor, most of them middle-aged or older. It is early: no pig organ has yet worked in a person for a full year.
What it means for your money: Its pig-organ work is paid for by a profitable core business rather than by selling new shares. For now, most of the company's revenue comes from its lung-disease drugs.
You Pick The Next Story
Which story should I chase for you next?
- Alzheimer's: which companies have the best shot at slowing it, and which are public
- Pets first: the animal longevity drugs that could reach people next
- Which other longevity biotechs trade below their cash, and what's behind it
- Women's aging: the companies racing to slow menopause and ovarian aging
- Something else: tell me what on the next page
Investor Tip
A rival's failed trial isn't automatically yours.
When a competitor's trial fails, check three things before assuming the same fate: does it hit the same target, is it the same kind of drug, and was it tested in the same patients? Sector selloffs often treat different drugs as one.
Longevity 101: What Each Trial Phase Actually Proves
Phase 1: Is it safe? Usually 20 to 100 people. A good blood-marker result here is a hint, not proof.
Phase 2: Does it work in patients? Usually a few hundred people. This is where most drugs stall: only about 29% move on to Phase 3.
Phase 3: Does it beat the standard treatment in a large group? Hundreds to thousands of people. About 58% succeed.
FDA review: About 91% of drugs that reach it get approved.
All together, only about 8% of drugs that enter Phase 1 reach approval.
How to use it: Before you buy, find the company's next trial result and which phase it's in. That one event usually moves the value more than anything else.
Source: BIO, Informa and QLS, Clinical Development Success Rates 2011-2020.
Quick Hits
Mission Therapeutics (private, UK): has started a Phase 1b trial in Parkinson's patients of MTX325, a pill meant to restore failing mitochondria, with Pfizer's and Roche's venture arms among its backers.
BioAge (NASDAQ: BIOA): plans to file to start human trials for a second program, APJ, a metabolic-aging target, by year-end.
On The Calendar
2027: BioAge's diabetic eye-disease (QUELL-DME) data, and Mission Therapeutics' Parkinson's Phase 1b results
2030: XPRIZE Healthspan grand prize of up to $81M awarded
For Members
Members get my 25-point health and business scores on longevity companies and see which ones I'm watching most closely.
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Eric
This newsletter is general and impersonal. Nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and it doesn't consider your circumstances. Nothing here is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Company plans and dates are the companies' own statements, not my forecasts.
I hold no position in, and receive no pay from, any company named here. Monte Rosa is on the EverLife Scout list, and BioAge is on the EverLife Watch List. I hold personal equity in Repair Biotechnologies and Yuva Biosciences, neither discussed here. Treatments mentioned are experimental unless noted as approved. Full disclosure and terms.