In a Honduran city, biotechs create gene therapy cocktails to fight aging

Próspera, a charter city on Roatán island in Honduras, hosts two biotechs working to combat ageing through gene therapy, as the organisation behind the city advertises its “flexible” regulatory jurisdiction to attract more developers.

In 2021, Minicircle set up a clinical site in Próspera to study the cognitive and health benefits with its circular RNA therapy in a Phase I trial (NCT07216781), in addition to a site in Austin, Texas, where it is headquartered. Last year, the longevity-focused biotech Unlimited Bio got incorporated in the city. Its CEO Ivan Morgunov told Pharmaceutical Technology that Próspera’s lax regulations foster the company’s lofty goal to create a regimen of gene therapies and other treatments aimed at addressing what he sees as the problem of human ageing.

However, industry experts are not yet convinced. Fellow gene therapy developers question both the scientific plausibility of fighting ageing through combinatorial gene therapies and whether ageing can be pathologised at all. At the same time, it is unknown if such biotechs can gather data acceptable to regulatory agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration...