The average life expectancy of more than 80 years and 23% of the elderly, calculated by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in 2021, make Portugal a country of weight in terms of issues related to aging. However, it is worth remembering that getting far does not mean getting healthy. This is the focus of longevity medicine, a specialty that will bring to the capital on May 4 and 5 through the Longevity Med Summit about 100 “sharks” with a combined portfolio of more than 9 billion euros to invest in innovative solutions and study business opportunities in the national market.
The summit, organized by Jorge Lima, founder of Unipeer Solutions, aims to be a “platform of knowledge and promotion of entrepreneurship” and, in addition to debates, lectures and moments of networks among the professional community, with a pitches, in which startups from all over the world have the opportunity to present their ideas and business models in the field of prevention, control and reversal of age-related diseases. The Innovation Prize is awarded to the best solution, judged by a jury composed of a group of investors, including the venture capital firm Portugal Ventures.
The Longevity Med Summit has so far received 40 applications from national and international biotechnology and nutrition entrepreneurs, particularly from major markets such as Israel, Switzerland and the United States. Registrations will remain open until April 15. In addition to companies already established with an activity duration of up to five years, the initiative also allows the participation of people and universities with business proposals or technologies that have not yet been developed, but have potential.
Speaking to Dinheiro Vivo, the promoter of the event explains that the term longevity refers to nothing less than preventive medicine, i.e. solutions capable of predicting or diagnosing diseases, or other types of health complications that people face at some point. can have. in life. Although the goal is healthy aging and is indicated for a target group of 50 years and older, this approach can be used in any age group, is suitable for clinics, hospitals and laboratories and serves different markets.
“All the solutions that will be present are very innovative, they are new technologies that have not yet been introduced to the market,” guarantees the same manager. Without any doubt that Portugal will become a “quite interesting new investment hub”, Jorge Lima anticipates the possibility that one of the investors present at the conference – which owns longevity clinics in Switzerland, Shanghai and Saudi Arabia – the opening of establishments of this type on national territory, through purchase, association or investment, with Cascais, Tróia and Algarve in sight.
Other funds with applications in the hospital field, such as networks in Israel and the United States, also have a clear place at the top and expect to “learn opportunities” in this area.
The investment areas most likely to receive funding from the Longevity Med Summit are artificial intelligence (AI), diagnostics and nutrition.
Regarding the potential of the internal market, the organizer also emphasizes that this is a “very new” segment, in which “there are already solutions, especially in the diagnostic component”, but not from a preventive point of view – it is a “novelty of the last five/six years” and therefore “there is still a lot of room to grow and receive innovative solutions”.
One of the most relevant figures among the “sharks” is Petr Sramek, co-founder and managing partner of the Longevity Tech Fund, one of the most active longevity investment funds in the world, with a portfolio of more than 40 projects. The investor argues that “the current longevity investment market is similar to the artificial intelligence sector before the rise in the value of shares in that market and now is the time to invest in the areas of healthy human longevity” .
Jorge Lima admits that expectations for the summit – which has partners such as Nova Medical School, the University of Coimbra and Hospital da Luz Learning Health – are high. In total, about a thousand participants are expected, who will come individually or in groups, from the side of the public and private initiative, with the presence of government policymakers confirmed.
Source: DN
