Exclusive: Retro Hopes It Has Found A New Way To Combat Alzheimer's Disease
Trial begins in Australia
Almost three years ago, the world learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had put a staggering $180 million into a longevity start-up called Retro Bio. And now we can report that Retro has begun a clinical trial of its first longevity therapy.
In mid-December, eight individuals in Australia orally ingested a Retro-designed treatment meant to blunt the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and perhaps other neurodegenerative conditions. The therapy – dubbed RTR242 – aims to improve the ways in which brain cells (neurons) clear waste by pushing the cells into a more active, youthful state. Boosting this waste removal process – known as autophagy – has been one of three main longevity therapies Retro has chased after in these early days of the company.
This first stage of the clinical trial will focus on safety above all else. Retro has dosed healthy people to see how they tolerate the drug. Next year, Retro will give the trial participants higher doses of the drug with the hopes of publishing the results from the experiments in the third quarter. If all goes well, Retro will move into a second phase of its trial and give its therapy to people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Retro has been seeking up to $1 billion in new funding, according to multiple reports, and has built up a reputation as a fast-moving, risk-taking bio-tech company. Along with the autophagy therapy, Retro has been experimenting with new ways to reprogram our cells back into younger states. Joe Betts-LaCroix, the company’s co-founder and CEO, hailed the new trial as an important shift for the start-up. “It’s a binary transition between being a discovery stage and a clinical stage company,” he said in an exclusive interview.
Betts-LaCroix declined to comment on the status of the company’s fundraising efforts other than to say he expects to use the money to fuel new research programs.
