Full Transcript for Americans Are Spending Billions to Help Their Pets Live Longer

can your dog live forever? We looked at the trend of pet owners trying everything from peptide injections to pills. to extend the life and wellness of their pets. Sam Chow's apartment is the kind of place where you walk in and immediately go, wow. There's a fireplace, big windows, a staircase. But the real reason Sam moved there was because of his dogs. 00:03:38 Speaker 2: It's quiet, the streets are clean, and I just wanted to ensure that I have more room for the dogs. 00:03:45 Speaker 1: Sam's dog's influence is everywhere. Above the mantle, there are four miniatures of his dogs, handmade out of felt by an artist from England. And on the table near the door, there's a framed photo of Sam's first Norwich terrier, Thatcher, who lived to 16 years old, sitting with Sam's late husband. 00:04:05 Speaker 2: I lost my husband. through stage four lung cancer. So for me, it was a little bit of a grounding for me to have the continuity of the same breed that we like. So we got Patriot. And Patriot was with us the whole entire time. And I noticed that maybe he's depressed. So we got Petunia. And then we have COVID. So we got a third one. And after the third one, we said, you know what? Might as well just get a fourth one. 00:04:31 Speaker 1: Outside his life as a dog owner, Sam is a beauty strategist. which means he's deeply tapped into the latest wellness trends. 00:04:39 Speaker 2: So I'm sorry to say that we all take collagen, especially in the beauty world, everyone's taking collagen. 00:04:44 Speaker 1: So you and your dogs all take the same collagen? 00:04:47 Speaker 2: Yes, but one for human version, mine's liquid version, and theirs is a powder version as well. 00:04:54 Speaker 1: And take it from my eyewitness testimony, Sam has amazing skin. He says he thinks of his own self-care and his pet's wellness as linked. 00:05:03 Speaker 2: Sam is just one of a handful of pet owners that Bloomberg's Anika and Amputi spoke to. 00:05:33 Speaker 1: About their approach to improving their animals' health and extending their lifespans. 00:05:39 Speaker 3: There was a source that I spoke to that, you know, hires an assistant to help him and his wife, you know, take care of his aging dogs, like take the dogs to red light therapy, water therapy, behavioral therapy, all sorts of things to sort of like help them recover from various illnesses, but then also just like to prevent things down the line. We also have statistics on the pet supplement market, which is also a booming industry. The figure is $ 2. 9 billion. It's just growing. I mean, we also looked at the number of dog and cat owners who have been giving their dogs and cats supplements, and the numbers have surged in the last six years or so. I believe in cats, it's like 70% growth, and in dogs it's 56%. 00:06:30 Speaker 1: Then there's rapamycin, which has become a go-to in the pet longevity space. It's been used by humans for decades to prevent kidney transplant rejection. Studies on mice who've been given small doses have shown a range of benefits, like improved heart health. It's conditionally approved for use on cats with heart conditions. And it's currently in clinical trials on canines. But one of the principal investigators told us no data will be available until 2028. One pet owner told Annika that time is a big factor in deciding what to give his pets. 00:07:08 Speaker 3: He's not a biohacker himself. He doesn't take, you know, rapamycin. He doesn't do any longevity treatments. But he was like, I've got 80 years to live my life. I've got 80 years to wait out and see if there's science, maybe science. Decades down the line, that could extend my lifespan. But my dogs don't have that time. They've got maybe like 10 or 15 years. And so I'm willing to try anything to just let them live like happier and longer lives. 00:07:35 Speaker 1: Humans have always been willing to spend on their pets. But Annika says the pandemic marked an inflection point. More people were getting pets. And more people started getting into pet wellness. 00:07:48 Speaker 3: And I think part of it is these pet owners believing that, you know, veterinary care might be a bit more, like, reactive than they had been hoping. And they're looking for, you know, more preventative measures, something that they can do at, you know, the middle of a dog's life as opposed to, you know, when the dog gets cancer or when the conditions start piling up. 00:08:11 Speaker 1: There's a whole industry that's cropped up to serve these kinds of proactive pet owners. There are smaller players like the startup Loyal Animal Health, which is studying three drugs targeted towards extending pets' lifespans. There are also industry behemoths like Alonco Animal Health, which used to be a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. The company has pioneered work on pet vaccines, flea prevention, and treatments for cat diabetes. 00:08:39 Speaker 3: And Ilanko has actually dedicated a staff of about 50 employees specifically for the purposes of researching pet longevity, extending lifespans, etc. 00:08:51 Speaker 1: When Anika's colleague Anna Edney visited Ilanko's Indianapolis headquarters, the CEO had brought his black lab, named Lily, to the office. That's like Eli Lily. The company wouldn't say how much they're spending on longevity research specifically. But last year, it did spend nearly $ 370 million total on research and development. 00:09:15 Speaker 3: It just shows how, you know, small startups like Loyal have been investing in this, but also some of the biggest companies in the veterinary space are also thinking about how do we extend lifespans for pets. 00:09:26 Speaker 1: I mean, Eli Lilly, to me, is very famous for GLP-1s in humans. I'm wondering, are there GLP-1s for dogs? 00:09:33 Speaker 3: Not yet, or not in a way that... veterinarians would recommend. There are some people that we spoke to who were giving peptides off-label to their animals, but obviously that was more of,

you know, a DIY, sort of like people, you know, choosing to see how these substances or chemicals might work in their animals. And they've seen, anecdotally, they've seen results. But I would say on the whole, veterinarians and the industry is still sort of waiting and seeing how, you know, GLP-1s or peptides work out. 00:10:12 Speaker 1: There's a lot the industry still doesn't know for sure about some of these longevity treatments for pets. how effective they are, how safe they are, and whether they're worth the cost. Coming up, how pet owners are making these calls. When Sam Chow started giving rapamycin to his oldest dog, Patriot, he says he noticed a new pep in Patriot's step. But the drug is still being studied. And Bloomberg's Anika Anampudi says, as of now, there are limitations on how it can be produced and marketed for animals. 00:10:54 Speaker 3: Rapid-myosin is a pill that is used in humans. It's been used in humans for like a quarter of a century to help the organ transplant process. This is a pill that has then been co-opted by the human biohacking industry, and some people take it to extend their own lifespans. This has now trickled down to pets. And we have people giving their pets rapamycin. 00:11:19 Speaker 1: Animal medications are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine. And rapamycin isn't FDA-approved for pet longevity. The Department of Health and Human Services told us it isn't approved for human longevity either. Canine clinical trials for the drug are underway. But in the meantime, vets are allowed to prescribe it off-label for some animals' conditions. Sam gets rapamycin through a telehealth company called Dutch, which connects pet owners with vets who prescribe the treatment virtually. Anika spoke to another doctor, who brands himself as the longevity vet. 00:11:59 Speaker 3: His name is Dr. Kevin Thoman. 00:12:01 Speaker 1: Dr. 00:12:01 Speaker 3: Thoman has around 3,000 clients in his practice, and he's somebody who prescribes rapamycin in an off-label capacity, basically, for senior or aging dogs and cats. 00:12:17 Speaker 1: Meeting virtually with Dr. Thoman to get a personalized lifespan improvement plan can run a pet owner $ 275, 000. For on-demand meetings, he charges $ 475 a month. You spoke to veterinarians and you spoke to experts about some of the risk factors of using rapamycin to help dogs and cats extend their lifespan. What did they find? 00:12:43 Speaker 3: One of the vets that we spoke to said that she hasn't really seen any side effects from rapamycin, but she hasn't also yet seen side conclusive proof that it does extend lifespans. They also cautioned the fact that you should talk to a veterinarian while you are dosing animals with any sort of medication. Be mindful of dosing requirements because humans are much bigger than animals and so maybe they would require a different kind of dosing. But, you know, specifically with rapamycin, it's still too early to tell

whether there are going to be any significant effects. Obviously, you know, the clinical trial that I spoke about earlier hasn't been completed yet. 00:13:26 Speaker 1: One of the principal investigators of the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial told us the study has two purposes, determining whether rapamycin increases the lifespan of dogs or improves the health. of aging docs. 00:13:42 Speaker 3: There's also another startup called Loyal Animal Health, which is testing three drugs specifically for the purpose of extending lifespan. So this is not rapamycin. This is like something that they had designed themselves. And those results haven't been out yet. I think on the whole, veterinarians are probably just waiting for maybe, you know, more definitive science to come out before they start recommending it more widely. 00:14:09 Speaker 1: It's so interesting because obviously people for a long time have thought of pets as children. Like they have these really intense bonds with their pets. But does this mean that people are basically experimenting on their pets? 00:14:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think some of the pet owners I spoke to said, where like, you know, these like substances, like these medications, they get tested on animals anyway, you know, early in the drug development process, like they're safe in mice. And so why wouldn't they be safe in my dog or my cat? I think the way that they think about it also is that I have like 80 years to live a happy and fulfilled life, but my dog might only have what like And are those the timescales that we're talking about here? Like when we talk about expanding pet longevity, is it expanding their lifespan by six months, one year or 10 years, 20 years? The people that I spoke to, they don't necessarily think about it in terms of like years per se. They think about it in terms of like good years. They don't want a dog that, you know, might be a bit older and like have, you know, maybe bone issues or heart issues and just be living to like, you know, 15, 16 years old. 00:15:35 Speaker 2: I am willing to take calculated risks for patriots. Because I just want him to be better and to be, you know, to be healthier. 00:15:46 Speaker 1: Sam views participating in the burgeoning world of pet wellness as a calculated risk worth taking. He stresses he does it all under a vet's supervision. But there was another factor I wanted to ask him about. How much would you say you're paying for all of these treatments overall? 00:16:05 Speaker 2: All in all, rapamycin, supplements, and everything else that goes in there, I would say around... Gosh, I'm having a tough time giving you the number. I think we're quite close to around 8,000 a year. 00:16:19 Speaker 1: Why was that difficult to say? 00:16:21 Speaker 2: I think especially with the world that we are living in now, I just really want to be sensitive because There are so many families out there that are having a tough time with the economy. And for me, I just really don't want people to think that I am spoiling my dogs. I think one clarification to a lot of people that they are not my dogs. They are my children. So as you, as a human person... volunteering to spend money on their ballet classes or their football game or their play date or their vacation to Cancun or whatever. We all have choices and my choices is to spend the money on their longevity. 00:17:07 Speaker 1: How does it feel thinking about your pets getting older. 00:17:10 Speaker 3: And your dogs getting older? 00:17:12 Speaker 2: I try not to think about that. Recently I received an email from a company that preserves your pets in a cryo chamber until there's future technology to unpreserve and make that whole summer case i'm not there yet you know to be honest were you intrigued a little bit i was intrigued because i'm always curious for technology and innovations you know i was intrigued so well i'm sure there's a human version and they are a human version as well but to be honest it's like I just want to have better years and better moments with them. And I think it's something that we do with humans as well. And I think that's the philosophy I am taking with my pet, is I just want to have better years with them and also better quality years. 00:18:06 Speaker 1: This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by me, David Gurra, and Juan Haan. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Jeff Grocott, Patty Hirsch, Rachel Lewis-Kriske, Emma Munger, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Chavin, Alex Ugiura, Julia Weaver, Yong Yong, and Taka Yasuzawa. Our executive producer is Nicole Beamster-Boer. To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg.com, subscribe today at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.