The drug, called LOY-002, mimics the beneficial effects of calorie restriction without requiring a strict diet, according to multiple reports. The company has received safety approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The pill could potentially become available before the study concludes if a final approval hurdle is cleared.
The study, named 'STAY', is two and a half years in and expected to run for a minimum of four years. It has been designed to detect at least a one-year difference between the treatment and placebo groups. The company hopes to keep treatment cost under $100 per month. For some dogs, this could represent nearly a 10% increase in their overall lifespan.
We're putting them on either the drug or a placebo, and monitoring them incredibly closely, collecting just a mountain of really interesting data.
Dr Brennan McKenzie, Director of veterinary medicine at Loyal, said: "We're putting them on either the drug or a placebo, and monitoring them incredibly closely, collecting just a mountain of really interesting data." He added that they hope to see dogs on the drug living longer with less frailty and better quality of life. The FDA recognizes that such studies are long, but if safety and likely efficacy can be shown, the drug could be brought to dog owners sooner.
At the end of that, we will hopefully see that the dogs on the drug are living longer, they have less frailty, they have a better quality of life, hopefully they have less age-related disease.
The FDA recognizes that studies like this are long. They take years and years to run. In the meantime, there is no drug that solves this problem. There's nothing available to try to target ageing and help dogs live longer. So if we can show that it's safe and that it's likely to work, we can bring it to dog owners and veterinarians sooner.
As a vet in general practice, I am privileged to be a part of my patients' lives through all stages – from puppyhood to their senior years. Seeing these older pets, though, can be bittersweet because I also see the limits that ageing has begun putting on their lives. All too often, they are m