On average, dogs live between 10 to 13 years, but it is said that smaller dogs can live longer than larger breeds, with some living for up to 20 years. For many people who own dogs, that's certainly a shorter span of time than what we'd hope, but that's just how nature runs its course.
Now, there might be a glimmer of hope as a biotech company has been working on a drug that extends the lives of dogs, and the FDA has found it to have a reasonable expectation of effectiveness, and is close to approving it. It might be the first anti-aging drug for dogs.
The biotech company Loyal produced LOY-001, which is a drug that targets IGF-1, a growth hormone in dogs, which they believe is responsible for the shorter lifespans of larger dogs. Not only does it lengthen the dogs' lives but the drug is also designed to increase their healthspan, the number of healthy years that a dog lives.
Although this drug is designed for dogs, Loyal hopes that the insights they gain from their studies into lifespan extension for dogs can carry over to humans as well. Currently, they have other drugs under development which could target human lifespans. For now, we can be satisfied with longer lives for dogs, once the drug gets approved.
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