Early Cancer Detection
How powerful biotech breakthroughs could extend your life
Ric Edelman: It's Tuesday, December 26th. Ho ho ho! I hope Santa was good to you. Imagine. Just imagine if the FDA were to approve a drug that were to extend your lifespan. Pretty sci fi, right? Well guess what, the FDA has just done that. No, not a drug that will extend your life. A drug that will extend the life of your dog. Yeah.
A California biotech company has gotten conditional approval by the FDA for a drug that increases the lifespan of dogs, particularly big dogs, large and giant breeds. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine says there is “a reasonable expectation of effectiveness” for this drug, not only to extend the lifespan of big dogs, but to also maintain their quality of life. The dogs get an injection every 3 to 6 months, and full FDA approval is expected within two years. The world's oldest dog, by the way, Bobby, died last year at age 31. Big dogs have more of a hormone called IGF one than little dogs do. And we all know little dogs live twice as long as big dogs. So this new drug reduces IGF one in adult big dogs to increase their lifespan. The idea is that we give them this while they're healthy to prevent or delay the onset of disease.
They did a study involving 452 dogs and 84 different breeds where they ranged in age from 2 to 18. The study showed that the drug had a beneficial outcome on the dogs. So here's a couple of questions for you. Do you really want a dog that lives for 20 or 30 years? More importantly, when do we get to take that drug or something like it?
Clearly, if they can figure out how to make dogs live twice as long, they've got to figure out how to make people live to age 150, right? Pretty exciting fields of study, huh? So I suggest you take a look at everything that's going on in biotechnology.
One big area, as we've been describing advances in genomic sequencing, all this stuff is leading to an individualized approach to health care. We're talking early cancer detection and even cures across a range of illnesses. Next generation DNA sequencing is fueling a new cycle in drug discovery. Recent discoveries have led to biopsies that require just a simple blood test. No more needles. 20 years ago, sequencing your genome cost $53,000. Today, it costs just$1,000. By the end of the decade, it will be a free app on your phone.
There are 350 million people around the world who have an undiagnosed disease. 75% of the people who have cancer won't know it until they have symptoms. And that means we need early detection. The market for early detection cancer screenings is $30 billion, and once you detect that there's illness in the body, you then need to start to treat it. We're going to have tailored therapeutics that are going to transform health care. Genomics are going to let us go after the root cause of disease. That's going to help us halt the progression. And I'm not just talking about cancer here, but also cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal diseases. All these therapies are going to consider patient-specific factors like your individual genes and your individual lifestyle.
It's going to be a new age of precision medicine. And we're going to take preventive steps, just like the dogs are getting these shots to reduce that hormone in their bodies. We're talking about worldwide sales of cancer therapeutics. That's going to hit $370 billion in the next four years twice today's rate. And we're going to cure cancer with an 80% success rate.
Not only are there going to be new drugs available to you, you're going to get them in new ways. I'm talking about telemedicine, digital health, online pharmacies, apps on your phones, your watch, your ring. All your wearable devices are going to monitor and analyze your health. They're going to send data directly to your doctor. You're already doing this with the latest Apple iPhone and the Apple Watch. Digital health services are going to be growing 18% a year over the next five years, according to researchers.
There are so many ways to invest in this technological innovation so that we can get the benefits economically that are dogs are about to be receiving physiologically. At Global X, they have five specific ETFs that I think are really worth looking at: The Global X AgTech and Food Innovation ETF, the symbol is KROP. The Genomics and Biotechnology ETF, the symbol is GNOM. The Telemedicine and Digital Health ETF, the symbol is EDOC. The Global X Aging Population ETF, the symbol is AGNG, and the Global X Health and Wellness ETF, the symbol is BFIT. If we want to recognize that these technological innovations are going to be doing incredible things to make us healthier longer, doesn't it make sense that in addition to being a wonderful move for our species, it's a wonderful move for our financial wallets as well? Check them all out at Global X ETFs.com. If you're an investor, ask your financial advisor about them.
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