As billions pour into biotech and medical research firms looking for life-extending medications, venture capitalists at the Personalized World Medicine Conference give Insilico Medicine, Inc. the "Most Promising Company" Award for 2015
Insilico Medicine, Inc., a longevity researcher
focused on drug discovery to combat aging and age-related diseases,
received the award for "Most Promising Company in Healthtech/IT" at the
Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC 2015) in Palo Alto, CA.
Insilico Medicine, Inc. won the competition after two rounds of
presentations judged by senior managers at seven of the world's largest
healthcare venture capitalists, including Kaiser Permanente Ventures,
Khosla Ventures, Aberdare Ventures, GE Ventures, New Leaf Venture
Partners, Aspen Institute and Johnson & Johnson.
"This year's PMWC Silicon Valley brought together creme de la creme of human aging research
and personalized medicine from academia, industry and finance," said
Insilco Medicine CEO, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD. "We're honored by the award
and the opportunity to work with industry leaders who, like us, want to
discover drugs that help our elderly live longer, healthier lives."
The company is developing high-performance computer modeling solutions - also known as bioinformatics
- that will help scientists analyze the underlying molecular process
that causes cancer and other age-related diseases. In 2014, Insilico
Medicine assembled an all-star scientific advisory board, including a
recent Nobel laureate and the principal scientist of the Human Genome
Project.
"This year we see the dawn of a new industry in aging and longevity,"
said Tal Behar, Co-founder and President of PMWC. "We are very happy to
see that a company focusing on commercializing aging research made it to
the finals and received the highest award."
According to research published by the Lancet Medical Journal, by the
year 2020, people aged 60 and older will outnumber children who are less
than five years old. This will be the first time in human history when
the old will outnumber the young. But longevity experts agree that with
greater age, there's a greater risk of disease and a healthcare
dependence. "Instead of trying to keep a person alive for another three
to six months, and essentially bankrupting healthcare systems worldwide,
we should introduce drugs that prevent the onset of age-related
diseases," said Zhavoronkov. "By helping the elderly live longer, we
will not only decrease pain and suffering worldwide, but we'll also
provide a significant boost to the global economy. "
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