The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is more or less intended to be a DARPA for medical research and development. Government bodies tend to present a view on aging that is very driven by current concerns surrounding entitlements and costs incurred by age-related disease. The entire diverse, distributed community aimed at the development of treatments for aging is viewed through the lens of its ability to reduce predicted budget issues. This perhaps biases government support for aging research towards less risky, more incremental gains that can be implemented broadly, such as cheap supplements, preventative programs based on better measurement of health, and the like, rather than more risky projects with a much greater potential payoff, such as the various rejuvenation biotechnologies.
The ostensible point of the DARPA-like parts of the US government, including ARPA-H, is to provide support for the riskier projects. How well that works out in practice is a matter for debate; ARPA-H is far too young as an entity to draw conclusions, and all arms of government are pressured to be risk averse regardless of stated mission. A few figures from the aging research community and longevity industry have transitioned into running or working at ARPA-H programs, and we shall see how they do in the years ahead. The ARPA-H program noted in today's publicity materials is less adventurous than it might be, essentially starting as a data gathering exercise at scale, to lend weight to efforts to measure biological age. A consensus, functional means of determining biological age is absolutely needed, true enough, but many groups are already working on this challenge. It is a well funded undertaking.
ARPA-H launches new program aimed at extending the healthspan of Americans
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new funding opportunity through the launch of the PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience, or PROSPR, program. The big question that drives the program is, "What if we had therapies to extend healthspan and prevent the onset of age-related diseases?"
"The ultimate goal is to extend healthspan - meaning the number of years aging adults live healthy lives and enjoy overall well-being by compressing the frailty and disability that comes with aging, into a shorter duration of time near the end of life." The PROSPR program builds on foundational work by the National Institute of Aging and will work with industry and regulators to accelerate the testing and availability of new therapeutics targeted at healthspan.
The number of people 65 and older accounts for 18% of the US population and is projected to increase to 23% by 2054. Considering their increased care needs relative to younger ages, health care costs will increase by 75% if nothing is done to prevent the progressive loss of physical functioning during aging. It is estimated that increasing the average American healthspan would lessen health care costs due to a combination of fewer medical needs, less reliance on assistance by others, and increased potential for individuals and their family caregivers to remain in the workforce. Because of these and other factors, it is estimated that extending healthspan by one year in only 10 percent of the aging population would reduce costs of U.S. entitlement programs by $29 billion per year and increase value to the national economy by $80 billion per year.
PROSPR: Proactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience
What if we had therapies to extend healthspan and prevent the onset of age-related diseases? The PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program aims to identify biochemical and physiological markers and develop assessment tools that will allow researchers to better understand and target the underlying causes of age-related disease. To achieve this goal, PROSPR will pioneer in-home data collection and clinical trial protocols that can assess age-associated health outcomes in just three years instead of decades of study, accelerating the availability of new therapies. If successful, PROSPR will build a new therapeutic industry with interventions focused on maintaining health during aging.
View the full article at FightAging
