I received a number of investing emails today, all of which pointed to a private gene therapy company that is claiming that it can reverse aging, potentially making someone older (like me) physiologically 10 years younger. Reportedly, the FDA has cleared them for Phase I testing in humans, testing it on restoring sight in patients who have become blind. Apparently this has already been successfully done in animal studies.
I don't intend to promote this company here. You can read about it here if you are interested.
The questions it raises in my mind are less about whether this actually works than about what if it actually does? What would be the societal impacts if those of us in the Boomer generation were suddenly 10 years younger (physiologically) and returned to the workforce with our decades of life and work experience? Where would that leave people who are younger who are trying to advance their careers?
When I first got started in hospital pharmacy administration, I wound up leaving my first position in middle pharmacy management at a large teaching hospital to take what many would describe as a "step down" to run the pharmacy in a community hospital. That was in 1979. It turned out that, if I had stayed at that teaching facility, I would not have had any significant opportunity to advance my career until 2008 (or roughly thereabouts), which was when the person I reported to finally retired. By that time, I had been able to significantly advance in my career after taking the "step down" and had transitioned to "the dark side" (industry) and participated in the invention of the first IV robot, and the first IV workflow system.
Heck, I was 74 when I finally retired (or at least tried to). I like to flatter myself that I remained working because I filled a niche that nobody else wanted to fill. That is probably somewhat true. But, to this day, I find myself wondering if, by staying as long as I did, I prevented someone younger from advancing.
"There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life"
Hamlet got it wrong. We do not seem to leave life early; we seem to want to live longer.
I don't know the right answers. I know only that any of these potentially life-changing therapies may have unanticipated (and, potentially, unfortunate) effects.
What do you think?
As always, these thoughts are my own, and not those of ASHP.
Dennis A. Tribble, PharmD, FASHP
Retired
tribbledennis@gmail.com