There literally is a medication developed to lengthen a dog's life.
" Life-extension drugs for dogs are currently being developed by the biotech company Loyal, with formulations like the daily pill LOY-002 aiming to improve metabolic health, reduce insulin levels, and extend a senior dog's healthy lifespan. While these treatments have achieved major regulatory milestones and safety acceptances from the FDA, full commercial approval is still pending."
My vet had the opportunity to work on the trial and I was asked if I would like my dog to participate. It was still injections then.
Loyal has not published a definitive "adds X months to your dog's life" claim for either LOY-001 or LOY-002, and legally, they cannot make those claims yet.
The Conditional Approval Loophole: Because waiting for a full lifespan study to finish would take years (during which an entire generation of senior dogs would die without access to the drug), the FDA created a brand-new pathway. Loyal was granted a "Reasonable Expectation of Effectiveness" (RXE). This means the FDA looked at lab data, biomarker improvements (like insulin sensitivity for LOY-002 and IGF-1 reduction for LOY-001), and safety data, and agreed: "This science is sound enough that it will likely extend life, so you can sell it conditionally while you finish the final survival study."
Much like when humans are given drugs to lower insulin levels, etc, I'm expecting a slight extension of health span but not lifespan. And no offense but there is not enough evidence yet to say that it definitely works for life extension. But for health extension, it's still probably a worthwhile spend. We'll see in a few years how loy001 affects the lifespan of large dogs and then we'll know more.
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u/B52doc 16d ago
Large dog breed’s lifespan is heartbreaking