King’s Speech (4th Day)

Lord Lebedev Excerpts

Monday 22nd July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lebedev (CB)]

I welcome the noble Lords to the House and congratulate them on their brilliant speeches. Mine follows on perfectly from those made by the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Vallance, and the noble Baroness, Lady Blackwood.

I am delighted to speak in this debate on the gracious Speech as the new Parliament opens. I want to turn the attention of your Lordships’ House to an emerging field that can unlock huge benefits for Britain: longevity research. I declare my interest as a trustee of the Hevolution Foundation, which is on the register. Our country faces a medical crisis. As life expectancy increases, the proportion of time spent in good health is going down. We must urgently develop a new approach to medicine, one that tackles the root causes of diseases, many of which—including heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s—are fundamentally the same, according to the latest research.

The discovery of the 12 hallmarks of ageing, including the loss of stem cells and metabolic dysregulation, is central to our understanding of what drives age-related disease. Also, a ground-breaking new theory suggests that ageing is driven by the loss of vital regulatory information within ourselves, rather than primarily by the accumulation of damage over time, as previously thought. Through epigenetic reprogramming, we could potentially reset our body’s tissues to a more functional state. Scientific studies have already reversed vision loss in mice, and human trials are set to begin next year.

There is the discovery of drugs called senolytics, which reverse aspects of ageing while eliminating the senescent zombie cells that contribute to chronic disease and cancer. Cutting-edge breakthroughs such as these, driven by labs right here in the UK, are informing how we tackle the underlying factors behind ageing rather than just tackling symptoms. We are standing at the precipice of a medical revolution catalysed by medical monitoring devices, genomics and the understanding of what drives ageing. Britain can become a global leader in longevity science, and capturing this beachhead would benefit us both socially and economically.

I urge noble Lords to consider the economic benefits. In the UK the cost of age-related diseases is staggering, amounting to billions of pounds annually. Dementia alone costs the UK economy £34.7 billion a year, and the economic burden of age-related diseases is projected to rise rapidly as our population continues to age. Just imagine: by developing therapies that reverse age-related diseases, we can allow people to live not only longer but, more importantly, in good health. The Office for National Statistics estimates that increasing the state pension age could keep people working longer and add £55 billion annually to the UK economy. Just a 20% reduction in six major diseases would lead to an annual GDP boost of almost £20 billion, according to Andrew Scott of the Global Institute.

Obesity treatment has been revolutionised through breakthrough drugs such as Wegovy, which address the underlying causes rather than just the symptoms. While Denmark’s Wegovy and Ozempic are shrinking the waistlines of celebrities, they are swelling Denmark’s economy and its GDP is predicted to grow 2.1% just this year thanks to these drugs.

We need a paradigm shift. We should approach ageing with the same mindset, tackling it as a medical condition in itself, not focusing solely on downstream illnesses. By becoming the first country to treat it as a medical condition, we can chart a course for more effective interventions and improved health outcomes —a future where ageing no longer means an inevitable decline but instead is a continued opportunity for vitality and productivity, well into our 80s and beyond. The science is now moving as rapidly as the AI revolution and will be similarly if not more impactful, so it deserves just as much attention.