Longevica Therapeutics Appoints Ex-Genentech Biotech Veteran Dr. Prasun Mishra as CEO to Advance World's Largest $13 Million Mammalian Longevity Study Toward Clinical Development

Former Genentech/Roche and NIH Leader Appointed CEO to Drive Longevica Therapeutics Into IND-Enabling Development Following Completion of World's Largest Mammalian Longevity Study

SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Longevica Therapeutics, Inc. ("Longevica"), a preclinical biotechnology company pioneering target discovery and small-molecule therapeutics from full-lifespan mammalian geroscience, today announced the appointment of biopharmaceutical executive Dr. Prasun Mishra as Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors. The appointment marks Longevica's strategic transition from foundational discovery to systematic drug development, accelerating the translation of its proprietary mammalian longevity dataset into clinical pipeline candidates.

Dr. Mishra's appointment follows the completion of Longevica's landmark four-year, $13 million in vivo mammalian screening program conducted at The Jackson Laboratory, which systematically evaluated 1,033 small-molecule compounds across more than 16,000 mouse subjects over their natural lifespans. The program generated a proprietary dataset that Longevica characterizes as the world's largest mammalian longevity screening program of its kind and one of the most rigorous empirical datasets in translational aging science.

Longevica is now entering its next operational phase: converting full-lifespan empirical data into defined biological mechanisms, druggable targets, and therapeutic development programs. Deep mechanistic analysis of the dataset has already revealed two previously uncharacterized candidate biological mechanisms governing mammalian lifespan extension, laying the foundation for selected candidates to advance into formal IND-enabling studies for high-unmet-need age-related disorders.

The Paradigm Shift: From Academic Geroscience to Pharmaceutical Translation

For decades, biopharmaceutical research has treated age-related pathologies such as metabolic dysfunction, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular decline, and systemic fibrosis as isolated, late-stage clinical entities. However, modern geroscience demonstrates that these conditions stem from interconnected cellular drivers of aging, including genomic instability, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, mitochondrial impairment, cellular senescence, nutrient-sensing dysregulation, and chronic systemic inflammation.

Translating these biological insights into conventional prescription therapeutics remains a challenge. Much of modern aging research has relied upon reductionist systems, including short-lived model organisms (C. elegans, Drosophila), cellular assays, computational modeling, and retrospective approaches. While these systems provide valuable mechanistic insights, they do not capture physiological complexity, multi-organ crosstalk, and multi-year temporal dynamics of mammalian aging over an entire natural lifespan.

Longevica addressed this structural industry bottleneck by executing a full-lifespan, empirical in vivo phenotypic screen directly in a mammalian model. Rather than assuming single-target hypotheses a priori, the company deployed an unbiased screening architecture across 1,033 structurally diverse chemical entities. By tracking mouse cohorts from maturity through natural death, Longevica experimentally mapped compound exposure directly to lifespan outcomes across full physiological life cycles.

The Data Engine: Reverse-Engineering Lifespan Phenotypes into Druggable Pathways

The resulting dataset bridges classical drug repurposing, phenotypic drug discovery, and modern computational target identification. Post-screen bioinformatic and mechanistic analyses have isolated specific chemical structures that extended mammalian lifespan, supporting foundational intellectual property covering lifespan-extension compositions.

Crucially, deep mechanistic analysis of the Jackson Laboratory dataset identified two previously uncharacterized candidate biological mechanisms associated with mammalian lifespan extension. These insights enable Longevica to reverse-engineer observed phenotypic lifespan extensions into precise, druggable biological pathways, transforming observational longevity data into small-molecule drug development programs.

By integrating this proprietary screening dataset with predictive AI models and computational chemistry, Longevica is training machine learning algorithms on empirical mammalian longevity outcomes rather than unverified public literature or isolated cell-line data. This data-driven engine accelerates target identification and validation, mechanism mapping, and lead optimization for novel therapeutic entities.

Leadership to Drive Preclinical Execution

Dr. Prasun Mishra brings more than two decades of biopharmaceutical R&D, translational medicine, and strategic corporate leadership to Longevica. His career spans executive and scientific leadership roles at Genentech, Roche, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Rutgers University.

Over his career, Dr. Mishra has spearheaded more than 30 therapeutic research programs, advancing 12 distinct candidate molecules into clinical trials and guiding four therapeutics through global regulatory approvals. His operational experience in translational oncology, precision medicine, and adaptive clinical design positions Longevica to translate complex geroscience mechanisms into conventional, regulatorily validated clinical indications.

"Over the past decade, the longevity sector has faced a fundamental translational validation challenge. The industry frequently attempted to build clinical pipelines on retrospective data mining, short-lived lower organisms, or reductionist cell assays that fail to reflect mammalian physiology," said Alexander Chikunov, Founder and Chairman of the Board at Longevica. "Longevica chose to address that challenge at the source by investing four years and $13 million to build an empirical, full-lifespan dataset at The Jackson Laboratory. With candidate mechanisms identified and foundational IP issued, Dr. Mishra's proven track record of guiding complex programs from preclinical discovery through IND filings and regulatory approvals makes him the ideal executive to lead Longevica's commercial translation."

"The central challenge in geroscience is no longer simply establishing that aging biology is modifiable, but determining which mammalian mechanisms can be translated into disease-modifying prescription therapeutics," said Dr. Prasun Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of Longevica. "While much of the field remains constrained by academic observation or pure computational modeling, Longevica generated hard, full-lifespan in vivo data across more than 1,000 small molecules in a mammalian system. Our strategic imperative is clear: apply biopharmaceutical discipline to convert these empirical targets into first-in-class therapeutics, advance lead programs through IND-enabling studies, and build high-value strategic alliances across the global biopharmaceutical industry."

Three-Pillar Corporate Growth Strategy

Under Dr. Mishra's leadership, Longevica is executing a structured, three-pillar growth plan:

• Preclinical & IND Execution: Advance lead small-molecule candidates targeting newly identified longevity mechanisms into formal IND-enabling studies, initially prioritizing high-unmet-need, age-related metabolic dysfunction and systemic fibrotic disorders.
• AI Platform & Computational Scaling: Expand Longevica's proprietary computational drug discovery engine by integrating machine learning models with the full-lifespan Jackson Laboratory dataset to optimize next-generation pipeline compounds and uncover novel druggable targets.
• Strategic Biopharma Alliances & Parallel Translation: Pursue co-development partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies for human prescription indications, while evaluating parallel opportunities in companion animal healthspan extension and science-backed consumer healthspan formulations.

Dual-Front Commercial Model for Healthspan Translation

In addition to its core human prescription therapeutic pipeline, Longevica's platform provides a direct translational bridge into pet health and veterinary medicine. Because companion animals experience age-related pathologies similar to humans over compressed lifespans, veterinary therapeutics offer a rapid clinical validation pathway and near-term commercial execution alongside long-horizon human biopharma development.

Guiding this multi-front translational strategy is an advisory board comprising leaders from Harvard University, UC Berkeley, Rutgers University, and life sciences venture capital firms.

About Longevica Therapeutics

Longevica Therapeutics is a preclinical biotechnology company developing small-molecule therapeutics for human and companion-animal health at the intersection of translational aging science, empirical mammalian phenomics, and AI-drug discovery. The company’s discovery platform is built on a $13 million, four-year full-lifespan in vivo mammalian longevity screening program conducted at The Jackson Laboratory, evaluating 1,033 small-molecule compounds across more than 16,000 mouse subjects over their natural lifespans. By integrating this proprietary dataset with multi-omics analysis, artificial intelligence, and computational chemistry, Longevica is working to identify and validate aging-associated mechanisms, druggable targets, and therapeutic opportunities. Supported by an advisory board comprising leaders from Harvard University, UC Berkeley, Rutgers University, and the life sciences venture capital sector, Longevica is advancing foundational discoveries toward preclinical development and, ultimately, clinical translation.

Corporate Headquarters: San Francisco, CA & Princeton, NJ
Official Website: https://longevica.com/