Dogs have been loyal companions for as long as we can remember. They greet us with excitement after a long day and are always ready to play, bringing joy to our lives.
The difficult truth we take when we welcome a dog into the family is that it is unlikely they will outlive us. According to petMD, the average lifespan for dogs is between ten and 13 years and varies among sizes and breeds.
However, this may all be about to change. Currently, an anti-aging pill for dogs is being created and might just be the solution to increasing the lifespans of our furry friends.
The Story
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According to People, Loyal, a biotech startup company that creates drugs for dogs, has created a pill that could extend a dog’s lifespan by a minimum of one year. On Feb. 26, they announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified the medication as having “reasonable expectation of efficacy.”
The Guardian states that Loyal has raised $125 million in funding from “companies who have held back from investing in human longevity projects because of the decades those trials would take.”
The pill is awaiting certification by the FDA for safety and availability for large-scale production before it can be officially prescribed by veterinarians. However, there is hope that this will happen in the near future, since Loyal is planning to earn conditional approval by the end of 2025.
The Anti-Aging Pill
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This new innovation comes as a beef-flavored pill that “seeks to bolster ‘metabolic health,’ which declines in dogs as they age.” Termed LOY-002 according to The Guardian, it will be available for dogs ten years and older who weigh at least 14 pounds.
Although the pill won’t make dogs immortal, it will work to extend their health by shortening the rate of aging.
Additional Research
People also described another company, the Dog Aging Project, that is researching how rapamycin, “a drug used in human organ transplants to help prevent organ rejection,” could extend a dog’s lifespan by an additional three years.
This immunosuppressant has been shown to increase lifespan, delay and even reverse age-related disorders in mice. Low doses of rapamycin may improve dogs’ “heart and cognitive functions by regulating cell growth and metabolism.”
The Future
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If this pill is successful for dogs, researchers will be able to utilize this knowledge to understand how to give humans longer and healthier lifespans. This means that in the future, you and your loyal pooch could enjoy each other’s company for much longer.
Celine Halioua, the founder and chief executive of Loyal, explained that finding out how to prevent aging in dogs is a strong basis for doing the same for humans, since dogs suffer from similar age-related illnesses.
The more human the animal gets that we can test our longevity drugs on, the more confidence we can have that these drugs will work on humans too.
–Tom Rando, director of the University of California’s Broad Stem Cell Research Center
While the pill awaits full FDA approval, dog lovers and owners alike can hold onto the hope that one day, their loyal pup can enjoy life for a little bit longer.
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