How A Cheap, Generic Drug Became A Darling Of Longevity Enthusiasts

Healthspan, a digital medical clinic, helps prescribe rapamycin to promote longevity. (Mark Abramson)

To keep himself healthy into his eighth decade, David Sandler recently decided to go beyond his regular workouts and try something experimental: taking rapamycin, an unproven but increasingly popular drug to promote longevity.

The medication has gained a large following thanks to longevity researchers and celebrity doctors who, citing animal studies, contend that rapamycin could be a game changer in the quest to fend off age-related diseases. The drug is going mainstream as an anti-aging treatment, even though rapamycin’s regulatory approval is for treating transplant patients. There is no evidence that it can extend human life.

Sandler initially dismissed the idea of rapamycin as a longevity drug, but as he read up online, he decided there might be something to it and ordered a year’s supply for about $200 from a supplier in India.

Researchers have found that rapamycin can modify a kind of cellular communications system that gives cells certain directions — to grow when the body has plenty of food and to slow down when nutrients are scarce. The drug can dial down the signal to grow, causing cells to clear out accumulated junk and allowing them to run more efficiently.

Despite the buzz surrounding the drug, it is unlikely that the Food and Drug Administration will ever approve it for longevity. The agency doesn’t consider aging to be a disease, and rapamycin’s generic status means there’s little financial incentive to run expensive clinical trials to test it on age-related afflictions. So doctors and entrepreneurs are increasingly marketing rapamycin beyond the scope of its regulatory label, believing a potentially life-extending drug is effectively hiding in plain sight.

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