Reverse Aging Technology Patents for 20 Years (2003–2023): Trends and Insights

Abstract

Rapid advancements in reverse aging technology, including telomere rejuvenation, gene therapy, stem cell therapies, and regenerative medicine, have great potential to halt the aging process. However, the implementation of these advancements in clinical practice has been hampered by issues with long-term safety, efficacy, regulatory barriers, societal concerns, and ethical dilemmas. This paper responds to this gap by analyzing the patent landscape of reverse-aging technologies between the years 2003 and 2023, focused on trends, key players, and innovation ecosystems. Patent data from Lens.org, which includes all the application submissions between 2003 and 2023 for gene therapy, stem cell therapies, telomere extension, and regenerative medicine, was used to conduct a patent landscape analysis. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a final set of nine patents was obtained from the 18 manually screened patents from an original dataset of over 160 million records using structured keyword searches, Boolean operators, and Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) codes. Analytical tools, such as VOSviewer, mapped regional patterns and thematic trends by visualizing term and keyword co-occurrence. Results show different trends in patents, with biotechnology and regenerative medicine advancements driving increase. Patent activity is dominated by the US and WIPO, reflecting their leadership in innovation. Fragmented innovation landscape highlights interdisciplinary research clusters and further calls for more sophisticated analytical techniques and standardized terminology. While reverse aging technologies hold enormous, even revolutionary, potential, ethical behavior, legal frameworks, and equal access are still problematic. Strategic international collaboration and strong intellectual property frameworks, further reinforced by standardized methodologies, are what it means to accelerate innovation by addressing these issues.