A Daily Pill to Defy Canine Aging (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Loyal, a canine health innovator, secured $100 million in Series C funding on February 11, pushing its total capital raised past $250 million to advance prescription drugs targeting age-related decline in dogs.
A Daily Pill to Defy Canine Aging
LOY-002 stands as the company’s flagship product, a beef-flavored tablet crafted for senior dogs. This prescription aims to replicate the metabolic benefits of calorie restriction while allowing pets to maintain their full appetites and food-driven training routines. Developers designed it specifically to sidestep the challenges of dietary limits that could strain the human-dog relationship.
“People do not want their dogs to not have food motivation, because that’s how you train dogs,” stated Loyal founder and CEO Celine Halioua. The drug targets metabolic shifts tied to aging, with hopes of adding healthy years to a dog’s life. Clinical trials already enrolled about 1,300 participants in the largest animal health study of its kind, known as STAY. Halioua expressed optimism that results could demonstrate at least one additional healthy year for treated dogs.
Halioua’s Path from Longevity Vision to Pet Innovation
Halioua launched Loyal in late 2019 following her role as chief of staff at The Longevity Fund, an early investor in the venture. She identified dogs as an ideal testing ground for lifespan extension therapies due to their biological similarities to humans and shorter lifespans, which accelerate research timelines. As a devoted dog owner herself, she tapped into a vast market of pet lovers seeking more time with their companions.
“It felt like a really tractable way to work on a problem that everyone cares about, which is having too little time with the dogs you love,” Halioua remarked. Her approach emphasizes practical solutions that preserve the joys of pet ownership, such as shared meals rooted in domestication history. This personal drive fueled the company’s rapid progress toward commercialization.
Navigating FDA Approval and Expanding the Pipeline
Loyal achieved two key milestones for LOY-002’s FDA expanded conditional approval: target animal safety and reasonable expectation of effectiveness. The remaining step involves proving scalable manufacturing consistency, which Halioua aims to complete this year, potentially triggering a six-month review. If approved, the drug would mark the first lifespan-extension treatment greenlit by the FDA for any species and target dogs over 10 years old weighing at least 14 pounds.
Costs could average under $100 monthly per dog, scaled by size. Beyond LOY-002, the pipeline includes LOY-001, a veterinary injection, and LOY-003, another daily pill. These focus on larger breeds by modulating growth hormones linked to shorter lifespans from selective breeding.
- LOY-002: Oral pill for metabolic aging in seniors.
- LOY-001: Injection targeting growth factors.
- LOY-003: Pill for broader canine longevity.
“Once the dog is fully grown, you can then reduce the levels of growth hormone to hopefully extend their healthy lifespan,” Halioua explained. Rollouts for these could follow LOY-002 by one to two years.
Investor Surge Signals Longevity’s Mainstream Rise
The Series C round drew support from Age1, a longevity-focused firm co-founded by Laura Deming and Alex Colville, alongside Baillie Gifford and prior backers. This built on more than $150 million previously raised. Deming reflected on the field’s evolution: “When I started pitching The Longevity Fund in 2013, it was a niche concept and people laughed me out of their offices. Now it’s a legitimate category of investment.”
Colville highlighted the universal appeal: “Aging is something that really affects everybody – every human and every dog on the planet experiences aging.” Success in canines could yield insights for human therapies, given shared biology. Halioua reinforced this: “If we’re able to do something helpful for dogs, I think we’re going to learn a lot about how to do something helpful for humans, too.”
Key Takeaways
- Loyal’s total funding exceeds $250 million, fueling three drug candidates.
- LOY-002 nears FDA review, priced accessibly for most senior dogs.
- Potential bridges veterinary advances to human anti-aging research.
As Loyal edges closer to market, it promises not just extended pet lifespans but a blueprint for tackling aging across species. What steps would you take to give your dog more healthy years? Share your thoughts in the comments.
