

Age Labs has announced that the Research Council of Norway has awarded €1 million in R&D funding to support Age Labs in developing a unique biomarker for aging, through their Programme for User-driven Research-based Innovation (BIA).
Age Labs, founded in 2017, based in Oslo, Norway is a startup company developing biomarkers for aging for use in clinical trials and drug development. The company aims to extend human healthspan by combining the fields of geroscience, epigenetics and machine learning. Through the use of large and unique datasets from Norwegian biobanks, Age Labs works to uncover entirely new biological information about aging and disease.
Age Labs is developing a novel biomarker that will predict all-cause mortality risk and risk of developing specific age-related diseases. The biomarker will enable pharmaceutical companies to radically increase the probability of success in clinical trials and as a result the likelihood of regulatory approvals. The R&D project will span four years and is led by Age Labs in collaboration with both commercial and academic partners including AbbVie, Fürst Medical Laboratory, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and Oslo University Hospital.
The average total development cost for a new approved drug is calculated at €2.3 billion, and approximately 90% of all drugs that enter clinical trials will fail. According to the company, with Age Labs’ upcoming novel biomarker pharmaceutical companies will have more accurate risk information about the patients being included into clinical trials. Hence, the probability of a successful outcome will substantially increase.
“Our ultimate objective is to help delay the onset of all age-related diseases.” … “We are very excited to have attracted this amazing team.” – Espen Riskedal, CEO of Age Labs
“Research that provides a deeper understanding of biological aging is important.” – Per Minor Magnus, Dr.Med and director of NIPH Centre for Fertility and Health
Sources:
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190204005177/en/Age-Labs-awarded-%E2%82%AC1-million-funding-Research
- https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/age-labs#section-overview