(This article was originally published at Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science, and syndicated at StatsBlogs.)
From a public relations article by Karen Weintraub:
An anti-aging startup hopes to elude the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and death at the same time. The company, Elysium Health, says it will be turning chemicals that lengthen the lives of mice and worms in the laboratory into over-the-counter vitamin pills that people can take to combat aging. . . . The problem, [startup founder] Guarente says, is that it’s nearly impossible to prove, in any reasonable time frame, that drugs that extend the lifespan of animals can do the same in people; such an experiment could take decades. That’s why Guarente says he decided to take the unconventional route of packaging cutting-edge lab research as so-called nutraceuticals, which don’t require clinical trials or approval by the FDA.
So far so good. But then this:
This means there’s no guarantee that Elysium’s first product, a blue pill called Basis that is going on sale this week, will actually keep you young.
Ummm . . . do you think that if the product did have a clinical trial and was approved by the FDA, that there would be a “guarantee” it would actually keep you young?
P.S. As an MIT graduate, I’m disappointed to see this sort of press release published in Technology Review. Hype hype hype hype hype.
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