Altos Labs launched with the most funding of any biotech start-up ever, a board packed with Nobel Prize winners — and high expectations that it was trying to defeat death.
But the top scientists behind the new venture, which last week revealed it had raised $3bn from investors, insist they plan to reverse disease so people can live healthier for longer rather than chasing a sci-fi vision of helping some live forever.
Rick Klausner, chief scientific officer and former director of the US National Cancer Institute, told the Financial Times the company was aiming to be the “Bell Labs” of biology, a reference to the innovative research and development unit behind technologies such as the transistor.