Do human longevity products provide meaningful clinical benefits?

The human longevity field is rapidly expanding, with companies developing interventions intended to slow or reverse cellular aging, prolong life, and extend healthspan. However, there are growing concerns that longevity interventions fall in a gray area for regulators. In a Policy Forum, Camila Strassle and colleagues argue that longevity products in the United States generally fall within existing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, despite claims to the contrary. They suggest that the more fundamental obstacle is instead the difficulty in measuring whether an intervention provides meaningful clinical benefits, which can take decades to establish. Strassle et al. argue that longevity products claiming to prevent or reverse aging should follow established FDA approval pathways and be supported by rigorous evidence of effectiveness, and safety. “Legitimate industry should welcome such enforcement, and the public should demand it,” Strassle et al. write.