CEO Corner: AgelessRx’s Anar Isman on the Future of Longevity Science
The co-founder of telemedicine platform AgelessRx, Isman believes we’re not far off from a world where people live much longer than they do today
A few years ago, Anar Isman had an epiphany: he wanted to help people live past 100.
In 2020, Isman left behind a successful but unfulfilling career in investment management to co-found AgelessRx, a telemedicine platform whose mission is to help people slow down the physical process of aging by prescribing doctor-approved drugs like Metformin, Rapamycin and GLP-1s, among others.
Isman’s vision for AgelessRx extends beyond profit and loss: his goal is to help grow the field of longevity science into a mainstream force for good, helping change people’s lives – and lifespans – in the process.
“To me, longevity and anti-aging, it’s not an industry, it’s not a sector. It’s a movement,” Isman says.
Isman sat down with Athletech News to discuss his decision to create AgelessRx, his thoughts on the field of longevity and anti-aging, and why he believes we’re not too far off from a world where people live far past 100.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background and why you decided to create AgelessRx?
Anar Isman: I spent 15 years in various prominent investment funds and then, sometime in my early 30s, I realized I wanted to build something that would change the world. Having done a lot of soul-searching, I couldn’t think of anything more important than slowing down aging and maybe eventually even reversing it. By aging, I mean the accumulation of age-related damage that comes with the passage of time. So we started thinking about how we could make the biggest impact on slowing down aging. The answer was a direct-to-consumer platform.
AgelessRx is a telemedicine company focused on longevity. Generally, the goal is to give people access to products that can have a potentially positive impact on their lifespan and their health span, products that help them optimize their health, delay the onset of certain age-related conditions, and screen for certain things sooner, like cancer, for example. Right now, everything we deal with requires a prescription.
ATN: It can be daunting for the average consumer to choose the right anti-aging drugs or supplements among a sea of options. How does AgelessRx help simplify this process?
AI: We put a lot of work into that, and we’ve come up with a very sophisticated assessment. It has around 50 questions and it gives you scores across multiple categories. It’s on our website, and once you do it, it will tell you based on your answers to questions on diet, lifestyle, exercise, family history, sleep patterns, etc., the things that could benefit you.
We also offer blood tests – you can order a blood test (through the AgelessRx website) or you can upload your own bloodwork.
ATN: How important is blood test data in prescribing personalized longevity products?
AI: Right now, generally, to be very precise with recommendations, you probably need some kind of blood work. But blood work comes with a lot of obstacles, which result in people not actually doing it. I envision a future where we can get a similar level of insight from the sensory data (in wearables), whether it’s your Apple Watch, Whoop or CGM sensor. That will allow us to personalize supplements or even interventions for you. That’s probably a few years away.
ATN: “Longevity” has become a buzzword in the wellness community. Has the longevity movement reached a critical mass of Americans yet?
AI: The longevity movement is definitely more prominent than it was five years ago, and people are much more open to telemedicine after the pandemic. But it’s still very niche. In terms of how many people are knowledgeable and interested in this, it’s still probably in the 2- 3% range across all American adults. So it’s moving in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go.
ATN: What’s the key to getting more Americans on board with the longevity movement?
AI: Several things, I think. Do you have a pet? I ask because whenever I talk to people about longevity and living longer, most of them say, “Oh, we shouldn’t be doing that, it’s unnatural,” or whatever other reasons they come up with. But when I say, “Would you like your dog to live longer?” Everyone says, “Yes, sign me up.”
It’s actually much easier to prove that something is working to slow down aging in dogs – there was a first clinical trial approved specifically for longevity in dogs earlier this year. I’m really optimistic that over the next three to five years, we might have an intervention that you can just give to your dog to live longer without the dog having any disease. I’m hoping that once the 70 million American households that have dogs see that, they’ll say, “Oh, I can give a pill to my dog just to live longer? Why not to my Grandma? Why not to my parents?” I think that might function as an eye-opening event.
Another accelerated model for aging is female fertility, the female reproductive window, where women’s ovaries and other organs technically age faster than the rest of their organs. If we’re able to slow down the aging of ovaries, for example, I think we can apply similar methods to slow down the aging of other organs.
One of the objections (to longevity science) is that people just don’t believe it’s possible to do anything to slow down aging. It feels kind of inevitable. So if we have something over the next five years that is effective, I think people will change their minds fairly quickly.
ATN: Right now, what does the typical AgelessRx customer look like?
AI: Our average age is probably around 50. But I define our persona differently than just age, it’s more people who want to be their own health advocates, people who come to realize that their primary care physician cares about them but really is very busy treating people who are sick. A lot of doctors don’t have time to figure out what’s the best thing they can do to help you stay healthy.
Our audience is also made up of people who are very high performers in demanding jobs who are saying, “I need to stay on top of my game, I can’t afford to be crashing at 4 or 5pm.” Those people benefit from things like NAD or B12 injections to give them that additional boost of energy.
ATN: What role should drugs and supplements play in people’s overall quest to live longer and healthier?
AI: Diet, sleep and exercise are the most important things you can do. Unfortunately, however, even if you have the most optimal of those three, that’s not going to get you to 120 years old or even 100. What we’re talking about is taking it to the next level, augmenting whatever you can get from a healthy lifestyle so you can benefit from a more radical lifespan and healthspan extension.
I’m not a biologist, but talking to a lot of biologists and physicists, there isn’t really anything from the scientific perspective that says we have to die or become decrepit by age 90 or 100. If we’re able to slow down the accumulation of age-related damage, we could live well in our hundreds and maybe even even longer.
ATN: What’s your vision for the future of AgelessRx?
AI: Today, when I talk to people about slowing down aging, nine out of 10 are telling me, “I shouldn’t be doing it.” I envision a world in five to 10 years where that’s going to completely flip on its head, where nine out of 10 people are going to be saying, ‘You don’t want to slow down aging? What’s wrong with you?’ In that world, I’d love for AgelessRx to be the go-to, trusted partner on people’s longevity journey.