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- As humans begin to live longer than 100, it’s going lead to a $610 billion market by 2025, according to analysts at Bank of America.
- That’s going to be driven by advances in food, medicine, and technology.
- "Technology is on the cusp of bringing unprecedented increases to the quality, and length of human lifespans," the analysts wrote.
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In the near future, more humans will be living longer and healthier past the age of 100.
Analysts at Bank of America see a market that could be worth $610 billion by 2025, up from $110 billion today. It’ll largely by driven via advancements in technology, both used preventatively and to treat some of the conditions associated with getting older.
"Technology is on the cusp of bringing unprecedented increases to the quality, and length of human lifespans," the analysts wrote in a report published on May 8.
Bank of America broke down that potential $610 billion market into five subgroups: genomics, big data, future food, ammortality, and moonshot medicine.
Read more: Investors bet nearly $1 billion on startups that want to defeat aging, but there’s a key challenge ahead
Genomics
One factor the analysts realized could contribute to people living longer and healthier would be a large uptick of people getting their genomes sequenced. As many as 1 in 4 people in the world could have their DNA mapped out by 2025, according to research cited by the Bank of America analysts.
That’d be a massive jump from where it’s at today. So far, about 26 million people have taken at-home DNA tests to look into ancestry and/or health traits based on small pieces of the genome. While the cost to sequence genomes has gone down drastically over the years, it can still cost $1,000. But between personal genetics, gene-editing tool CRISPR, and advancements like gene therapy to treat inherited diseases, the market could balloon to $41 billion by 2025, the analysts wrote.
Big Data
As we amass more information from sources like sequenced genomes, that data could help with new breakthroughs in drug discovery and development.
Ideally, new sources of data will help give researchers a more comprehensive picture of patients, helping personalize treatments or tailor new drugs to work precisely how the researchers want them to.
Ultimately, Bank of America expects the market around big data in healthcare to reach $36 billion by 2025.
Katie Canales/Business Insider
Future Food
Changes in our diets might help us live healthier to 100 as well, with one of five preventable deaths worldwide tied to diet, Bank of America noted.
Alternatives to the way we eat now could be a big opportunity for food companies.
"Next gen products such as lab-grown meat, where costs have fallen 99.7% in the past six years, and the rise of ‘flexitarian’ diets that reduce meat consumption are among the future food solutions in a market opportunity worth $7.5 billion by 2025," the analysts wrote. The market seems to be catching on. During the initial public offering of Beyond Meat, the makers of plant-based burgers saw its stock surge by 163%.
Ammortality
By far the biggest of the subgroups highlighted by Bank of America is something the analysts dubbed "ammortality." The researchers define it as "living healthier, better and longer" as an alternative to "immortal," or simply living forever.
Helping us live healthier for longer are tools like health-tracking wearables and the ability to meet with a doctor without going into the office, as well as electronic health records used to digitally log patients within health systems. The interest in remote monitoring for chronic conditions is driving the growth in the market, the analysts noted.
The market right now is $86 billion, and it’s expected to jump to $504 billion by 2025.
Moonshot Medicine
The analysts put research on anti-aging treatments into the "Moonshot Medicine" subgroup. These new approaches might be able to help with particular conditions, like Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, or they help prevent muscle loss or other visible signs of aging.
Investments into startups trying to find a cure for aging are exploding. And the report pointed to projects Silicon Valley companies like Alphabet’s life sciences company Verily is working on in its "quest to disrupt death," as Bank of America put it.
Right now, the market for anti-aging stands at just $1.6 billion. By 2025, that could grow to $20 billion, the analysts wrote.
- Read more:
- A VC who dropped out of MIT at age 14 has invested in biotech companies that are now worth billions. Here’s how’s she’s picking her next investments to help us live longer.
- ‘To them it was a science fiction story’: A VC who dropped out of MIT at age 14 explains why investors are starting to pour hundreds of millions into a field they had previously snubbed
- Samumed, a $12 billion startup that wants to cure baldness and smooth out your wrinkles, just released promising data on its lead drug to treat osteoarthritis
- The CEO of a $3.7 billion senior-care company went to a country facing a ‘demographic time bomb,’ and what he saw could be a lesson for the US
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Source: Business Insider – lramsey@businessinsider.com (Lydia Ramsey)