Major medical advances that could increase lifespan by affecting the human body on a cellular level are in clinical trials and may be accessible to the public within the next decade, according to billionaire investor Jim Mellon.
Mellon, who was speaking at Spear’s 500 Live on 6 May, urged the audience to ‘stay alive for the next 10 years, because in 10 years’ time I do believe the first truly anti-ageing drugs that halt, slow or reverse ageing will be around for us’.
Mellon, who has invested widely in life sciences through his business Juvenescence, joined a panel discussion titled ‘The art of ageing: how to flourish amid the longevity revolution’, alongside Dr Angela Rai, a GP and medicines management lead at the London General Practice; Duncan Garrood, CEO of the Goldman Sachs-backed senior living business Riverstone Living; and Professor Georgina Ellison-Hughes, a specialist in regenerative muscle physiology at King’s College London.
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The longevity sector is worth around $800 billion, and is expected to grow to an estimated $1.87 trillion by 2034, according to a recent WorldHealth market report. Altos Labs, a biotech startup exploring cellular rejuvenation, is backed by Jeff Bezos; millionaire tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has made it his mission to live forever, spending millions a year on extending his healthspan; and Elon Musk called human ageing an ‘extremely solvable problem’ when speaking at the 2026 World Economic Forum.
The panellists agreed that addressing both lifespan and healthspan (the length of time for which one is sufficiently healthy to enjoy a good quality of life) is key. ‘Doing something about longevity is not a nice-to-have: it’s an imperative, because the world is ageing very rapidly,’ said Mellon.
Senolytic drugs designed to combat cellular senescence – when ‘zombie’ cells cease to perform their function but do not die, releasing harmful chemicals into the body – have recently moved to clinical trials. Preclinical models have shown improvement in tissue function, lifespan and healthspan as well as physical function, Ellison-Hughes said.
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Partial genetic reprogramming – a method of using genetics to take a dysfunctional cell and revert it to its younger, healthy state is another ‘really exciting’ development in advancing lifespan, which already has real-world effects for age-related conditions, Ellison-Hughes added. She referenced Dr David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, who has been trying to restore vision using partial reprogramming in glaucoma – an age-related condition that damages the optic nerve.
Existing medicines, including weight-loss drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, could be used on a preventative basis ‘in small doses’ to treat diabetes as well as cardiovascular and neurological protective mechanisms, said Mellon. Even the shingles vaccine has the potential to reduce the risk of dementia, although its efficacy is difficult to quantify at the moment.
The panellists agreed that increasing life expectancies raises questions about what it means to be old.
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‘The idea of being old is one that we don’t talk about,’ said Garrood, whose later-living development Riverstone has four locations across London, with apartments starting at £960,000 and rising to almost £7 million.
‘We don’t even use the word [at Riverstone], because this is about people living a quality life for as long as they can. Age is irrelevant; it’s about the quality of how we live.’ Garrood noted some of Riverstone’s residents have taken up skydiving, proving that chronological age is just a number.
Rai, who works closely with HCA Healthcare UK, said that many of her patients now refer mainly to their biological age, which can be calculated by measuring decline through methods such as epigenetic and metabolic testing. For most of them, their biological age is younger than their chronological age, she said. ‘It depends on how you feel.’
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‘I think we are just going to have to reinvent life, because at the moment people think that life is about being born, learning, earning, retiring and then expiring,’ said Mellon. He called into question the retirement age and how this would need to be re-evaluated as people stay younger for longer.
While the world waits for the results of the clinical trials that could pave the way for significant strides in longevity, the panel emphasised the importance of movement, nutrition, social interaction, sleep and health screening in the meantime – as well as ‘moderation in all things’.
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Spear’s 500 Live is the premier live event for private client professionals and leading figures from the private wealth and family office ecosystem. The 2026 edition took place on 6 May at The Savoy in London.
Spear’s 500 Live was presented in association with our partners the Charities Aid Foundation, CMB Monaco, Guernsey Finance, HCA Healthcare UK, Payne Hicks Beach, Riverstone, Scott Dunn Private and Stewardship.
For commercial enquiries concerning Spear’s events, contact shady.elkholy@spearswms.com.
