You knew this was coming, the perfect example of raging capitalism: old people buying young people’s blood.
In Monterey, California, a new startup has emerged, offering transfusions of human plasma: 1.5 litres a time, pumped in across two days, harvested uniquely from young adults.
Ambrosia, the vampiric startup concerned, is run by a 32-year-old doctor called Jesse Karmazin, who bills $8,000 (£6,200) a pop for participation in what he has dubbed a “study”. So far, he has 600 clients, with a median age of 60. The blood is collected from local blood banks, then separated and combined – it takes multiple donors to make one package.
Let’s consider all the ways this is sleazy.
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Karmazin isn’t paying the donors in proportion to the value of their blood; a unit of blood is worth a few hundred dollars, and he’s just buying it up from blood banks and repackaging it with a significant markup.
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If he were paying what it was worth to him to donors, he’d be enticing donors to contribute to him for a pointless exercise in imaginary rejuvenation, rather than to blood banks/hospitals for saving lives.
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Right now he’s depleting the local blood supply by a small amount for his venality.
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He’s lying and calling it a “study”. There are no control groups. Participants have to buy in with large sums of money, so he’s selecting for only the rich.
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There is no good evidence that this is an effective and significant treatment for aging. There is some work in mice, but it’s so preliminary that there’s no way to justify leaping into human trials.
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Imagine that there are solid, measurable improvements in the recipients’ health. I don’t believe in getting something for nothing; then I would have to ask what are the detriments to the donor’s health of giving blood. Are there long term losses? Short term effects? This ‘study’ is ignoring that side of the issue.
Bad science, weak justifications, and wealthy exploiters literally feeding on the blood of the young, like a swarm of geeky overpaid ticks. They are actual vampires. They should think about that, because there is a universally known literary precedent for how one deals with vampires.
I do think that research into, for instance, stem cell replenishment is a good idea — but let’s not pretend that what this guy is doing is serious research. And if these transfusions do have some beneficial effects, it’s time to have some serious consideration of the ethics of such treatments, and their wider effect on society — two things that venture capitalists and vampires don’t know much about, and don’t care about.
Yabbut, Peter Thiel does it! So it must work, because of course, wealthy assholes just can’t be wrong.
Special, one-time offer: If you pay extra for the blood, I will throw in a cold-fusion energy production kit
Is this Peter Thiel’s renfield?
Elsewhere in the news Thiel is under fire for backing what sounds like a sketchy (unethical, bypassing human factors boards) herpes vaccine. I guess he envies Shkreli.
Lance Armstrong was getting pretty vampiric there for a while, too. “Extreme recycling” or something.
Some of the blame for this lies with the blood and plasma banks.
The quack is missing a significant profit opportunity here: Don’t bother with the blood banks, just use a suitable placebo, call it homeopathetic, and jack up the price.
rcurtis505:
No, it doesn’t.
Hitler and Jefferson Davis are making a comeback, why not Elizabeth Báthory?
So this doctor is plundering bloodbanks to turn a profit? Quick, someone call the cops! Bloodbankrobbery in progress!
Anyway, there goes my impression that bloodbanks were in place for emergencies and that a suitable supply of donor blood is difficult to ensure. But since the banks are selling blood to this questionable company that simply cannot be true. Clearly there is plenty of blood to spare and everything is fine. Hooray.
Speaking of vampiric capitalism, does this mean I could walk into a bloodbank and buy blood for cash? I’m not doctor but I’m sure I could turn a profit if I just bought the entire supply and resold it to the local hospital. With a moderate increase in price for, er, administrative overhead.* Incidentally, I’m looking for investors into my latest venture. Loansharks also welcome; I offer my oustanding moral compass as collateral.
*My company headquarters will be on a tropical island. I don’t know which one yet, just that it will be expensive.
Mike Judge’s new show, currently on hiatus, Silicon Valley, presented this issue in a scene that at first appeared satire of rumors that rich people are transfusig young blood to steal their youth, IE the “fountain of youth” effect. They did point out, strongly, that it was a fraud, ripping off the hopes of the wealthy.
Youth is wasted on the young // *sigh*
It’s awful to hear such scams are profiting by literally (yes, literally, not ’emphatically’) selling “snake oil”.
This may come back to bite the clients. The tests on donated blood aren’t 100% accurate and there is always the possibility of a new disease that isn’t yet tested for hence there is a risk when receiving a blood donation (one reasons why people going in for planned surgery often self-donate ahead of time). They are taking a medical risk with no proven or even likely upside. I wonder if the doctor covers himself in the paperwork they sign ahead of time.
Science published an article on this last year (Aug. 1, 2016)
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/young-blood-antiaging-trial-raises-questions (probably behind a pay wall).
Several concerns were raised such as:
“To bioethicist Leigh Turner at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, the study brings to mind a growing number of scientifically dubious trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov by private, for-profit stem cell clinics. The presence of such trials in the database confers “undeserved legitimacy,” he says.”
Karmazin apparently had the trial pass ethical review though the article doesn’t note by whom.
The trial registration info on a US government site is at
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02803554?term=Karmazin&rank=1
There is a disclaimer about this not being an endorsement by the government.
How do they know the donors are younger? I just donated last week and I’m 58. A casual look round suggested some of the other donors are older than me.
Whoo boy. This has all the hallmarks of your classic and highly unethical scam, charging for an unproven treatment and calling it a “study”. I wonder where he got his ethics committee approval from?
Unfortunately it sees possible to get around normal constraints for years, see Stanislaw Burzynski and his “cancer cure” crap for instance http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2017/07/20/quack-stem-cell-clinics-are-following-the-trail-blazed-by-stanislaw-burzynski-and-charging-patients-to-be-in-dubious-clinical-trials/
komarov @9:
IIRC, blood has a limited shelf-life before it can’t be used for a transfusion. Presumably, he’s buying old blood that would have otherwise been thrown out.
“Ethics” and “quack” are an infrequent word combination. Having said that, it might be that that is what the quack is being sold (presumably for the stated reason), which makes me wonder what restrictions are supposed to apply to the usage of expiring banked blood?
“They should think about that, because there is a universally known literary precedent for how one deals with vampires.”
Yeah. Find the grave during the day by using unmarked black stallion (it mustn’t be castrated and has to be all black, without a hint of other color) to point at the grave. Where the horse doesn’t want to move further and hits with his front leg, start digging. Once you dig the vampire out, stick hawthorn steak through the heart. It has to be hawthorn! (that part is often forgotten). Before you stick the steak, somebody has to block the vampire’s mouth then put the holy water all over the face, so the butterfly doesn’t get out and somebody else doesn’t become a vampire! After all the blood has flown out, cut off a vampire’s head then burn the body where it is. Then cover the place with dirt and never speak of it again until there is a need.
“They should think about that, because there is a universally known literary precedent for how one deals with vampires.”
Yeah. Find the grave during the day by using unmarked black stallion (it mustn’t be castrated and has to be all black, without a hint of other color) to point at the grave. Where the horse doesn’t want to move further and hits with his front leg, start digging. Once you dig the vampire out, stick hawthorn stake through the heart. It has to be hawthorn! (that part is often forgotten). Before you stick the stake, somebody has to block the vampire’s mouth then put the holy water all over the face, so the butterfly doesn’t get out and somebody else doesn’t become a vampire! After all the blood has flown out, cut off a vampire’s head then burn the body where it is. Then cover the place with dirt and never speak of it again until there is a need.
ps: Damn it, I accidentally clicked Post comment instead of preview.
blf@ 15:
Indeed.
jo1storm@#16:
Then cover the place with dirt and never speak of it again until there is a need.
Does a cinematic remake constitute “need”?
If yes:
As undead, can vampires sign a contract?
Marcus Ranum,
Well, in Discworld, the undead can not only sign a contract, they can draw one up (Mr. Slant–one of the leading lawyers in Ankh-Morpork is a zombie). A fictional example, granted, but the undead are fictional…except for Dick Cheney.
#14: Yes! So he may not actually be reducing the available pool of blood for emergencies, which is a good thing.
On the other hand, blood has an expiration date for a reason, and so he’s exposing rich fucks to a different kind of risk. Which may also be a good thing.
There is one aspect of this that could possibly lead to some problems with interpretation of the “data” that might be derived from the “study”. Since the clients/subjects are necessarily rich enough to afford the treatment, they are in a population group that has a slightly greater longevity than the population as a whole. They are rich enough to probably adopt health behaviors that actually can enhance longevity such as living in a place away from major pollution sources, having time, inclination and resources to adopt health-promoting behaviors and ability to access the best health care. They are probably so concerned about their health that they would eschew any sort of behaviors that might have a negative effect on longevity. A few might feel confident enough to engage in risky behaviors, but that would be a small minority. Rich fuckers to tend to live a little longer, so the doctor has picked his study population well. If they do end up living three years longer than the general population, he has “succeeded”.
I’ve often wondered how history would have played out if Reagan had of gotten aids after he survived his assassination attempt. I guess we’ll find out soon.
The weird thing about this, to me, is the whole “Where is the blood coming from?”
But then I remember that another weird thing in the US is how usually it’s the Red Cross who gathers blood, so of course the assumption that donating blood is for health care needn’t hold in the nation where normality has gone out to lunch.
Wasn’t the original, actual study on rats just meant to identify blood proteins that play a part in the aging process? Why do these guys think that slowing down aging is going to have a simple, easy solution like taking antioxidant supplements or getting blood transfusions from young people?
Because they are simple people who think that money produce easy solutions.
I sure hope the good doctor keeps a fast horse in his stable for when things get ugly in Dodge City.
I’m guessing that Peter Thiel and the other clients of this doctor haven’t read Huxley’s After Many a Summer.
wouldn’t it be moo bettah if it was whole blood from virginal teenagers instead of blood plasma made from expiring blood from blood banks?
uncle frogy
The horse will be fast — it’s been refilled with the blood of young cheetahs (and then probably fed the emptied cheetahs for extra protein). The real questions are (1) Did he remember to equip the saddle with a safety harness; and (2) How does he plan to steer it(the horse, that is, the saddle & screaming occupant
willshould sort-of just go along with the horse) ?@11:
it was passed by Dr. A. Cula.