The buzzy $2 billion kickoff of startup Altos Labs and its clutch securing of GSK honcho Hal Barron as its Chief Executive Officer all but guaranteed its long-term funding for research wouldn’t run dry any time soon. However, a report from U.K.-based research and investment firm Longevity Technology indicates that even the star-studded Altos won’t be immune to a notable dip in investment for the firm's namesake sector.
Indeed, the report details some less-than-promising numbers. Last year, the longevity sector pulled in $5.2 billion, and while that’s nothing to sneeze at, that figure is markedly down from 2021’s $6.2 billion. A dearth of financing deals corroborate the bad news; only 130 deals were inked in 2022, making for the lowest figure since 2017.
The transactions that did come through over the year happened to be mostly smaller value deals, barring a handful of big outliers — and those weren’t enough to soften the blow. The leading number among them was Maze Therapeutics’ $190 million financing, and that is mitigated by the fact that the cash is being allocated for pushing forward preclinical precision medicines. The other two making it past the “big” threshold were anti-aging solutions biotech Retro Biosciences with its $180 million score and AI-specific drug developer Recursion Pharmaceuticals, which brought in $150 million.
