The Cat Health Company aims to develop cutting-edge therapeutics that can extend cat lifespan and healthspan.
Last week we reported that The Cat Health Company had closed its pre-seed round and is now moving towards identifying and developing new therapeutics for age-related diseases in cats. As the pet longevity field continues to gather momentum, The Cat Health Company aims to join companies like Loyal and Arterra at the forefront of this movement. Founded by Alex Bacita and Alex Voda, the Bucharest-based company is not only focused on improving the lifespan of our feline friends but also on enhancing their overall quality of life by targeting the underlying mechanisms of aging.
Longevity.Technology: Pet longevity is becoming a growing area of interest for both researchers and consumers; as owners increasingly seek solutions to extend the healthspan of their pets, demand for scientifically backed innovations has grown, and it is a trend that mirrors the rising popularity of similar human-focused longevity research, signaling a shift in how we approach aging across species.
We sat down with Alex Voda, cofounder of The Cat Health Company, to discuss the future of feline longevity and how TCHC plans to turn cutting-edge research into practical treatments for the cats we cherish.
The market for longevity-focused products for cats is still relatively small when compared with the human longevity market – but it is growing. And the pet drugs market is also steadily increasing; Voda explains this is why big pharma companies like Merck and Novartis have created veterinary arms in their businesses and references US pet pharma Zoetis, which has a market capitalization of $86 billion as of September 2024.
“Supplements have a rewarding but tough journey,” he explains. “You have to convince veterinarians and/or consumers that there’s some sensible data suggesting safety and efficacy for your molecules, but without having the backing of relevant institutions like the FDA or EMA.”
Voda explains that the pharma space is characterized by more testing, more trials and more data than there is for supplements.
“This is good for both regulators and consumers, and while it costs more, and can take slightly more time, it ensures that there is an expert consensus on the mechanisms, safety and usefulness of your molecules.”
As TCHC develops its therapeutics, it plans to feed into national treatment guidelines for veterinary age-related diseases, enroll more and more veterinarians in its programs and build trust with pet owners. “A pleasant set of tasks to have on your hands!” remarks Voda.
Startups come with challenges as part of the package, but startups focusing on animals have their own set of unique challenges, as Voda explains.
“For one, it is certainly more difficult to understand what the patient is trying to tell you!” he says. “For this reason, in terms of symptoms, we try to take as much input as we can from their human companions.”
However, it also brings opportunities as well.
“We are very happy that various medical data collected from the cats (e.g. blood analyses, other medical data) is not as harshly regulated as GDPR does human medical data. This means we can spend less money and time worrying about cats’ privacy and more on cat health.”
In collaboration with EpiPaws, a leading diagnostics company in Florida, The Cat Health Company is conducting a groundbreaking study involving 100 cats to collect valuable omics data. This research aims to refine our understanding of the genes involved in feline aging – an area that could lead to the development of new therapies targeting age-related conditions in cats. It’s a partnership that speaks to the company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of feline healthcare through a data-driven, scientific approach.
“Multiomics is definitely growing at a high pace. We see more and more people leveraging genetic (e.g. GWAS) data but epigenetics, proteomics and metabolomics as well! One thing we are also excited about is the emerging single-cell data from the veterinary space.
“These datasets can be quite expensive to generate. However, the hypotheses we have generated and tested, which started from such omics, are priceless in our eyes right now.”
TCHC hopes to begin recruitment for its first therapeutics trial in 2-3 months, and to have primary endpoints for health approximately 6 months after the trial begins. In terms of secondary endpoints, such as for survival differences, longevity, &c, Voda says that will be a few years down the line.
“We will select targets from cross-species conserved aging mechanisms that our computational pipelines have prioritized,” explained Voda. “We have targets in mind that haven’t been used for longevity before but we can’t reveal more at this stage.”
