Altos Labs Has No Phase 1 Registration
The Capital-Science Ledger
More than $3 billion in disclosed funding entered the partial cellular reprogramming category between 2022 and early 2026. Altos Labs closed its first round at $3 billion in January 2022. The clinical ledger is empty. No Phase 1 study in humans has reported a primary outcome in this category. The capital ledger prices a 2029-2031 first approval in a major regulatory jurisdiction. A family office holding this category at current valuations is pricing a clinical milestone that has not been attempted.
Partial cellular reprogramming, the attempt to reverse aging markers in adult cells by transiently expressing Yamanaka transcription factors (proteins first shown in 2006 to return mature cells toward a developmentally earlier state, work that earned Shinya Yamanaka the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), requires a Phase 1 human study to establish a safe dose range and define a measurable primary endpoint before a Phase 2 can be designed. An epigenetic clock (an assay that measures biological rather than chronological age from DNA methylation patterns) is the leading candidate for that endpoint. gov as of May 2026 returns no registered interventional study of partial reprogramming in humans with a validated epigenetic clock as the pre-specified primary endpoint. A search of ClinicalTrials.gov as of May 2026 returns no registered interventional study of partial reprogramming in humans with a validated epigenetic clock as the pre-specified primary endpoint. Altos Labs closed at $3 billion in January 2022. The registry entry does not exist.
Two Regulatory Clocks
Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA), which oversees pharmaceutical and advanced therapeutic product licensing, operates an expedited review pathway for cell and gene therapies that can target conditional licensing within 12 to 24 months for priority products. NMPA's Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE), the Beijing division that handles new drug applications for mainland China, requires a preclinical safety package covering at least two animal species before accepting an IND (an Investigational New Drug application, the formal filing required before human trials can begin) for any cell-based or gene-based therapeutic. The CDE has published no dedicated guidance on partial reprogramming as a category. A sponsor filing in China is working from a general biologics pathway with no published standard.
Venture term sheets in this category model Singapore or Australia's TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia's national medicines regulator) as the primary approval jurisdiction. A venture that requires NMPA approval to address mainland China demand (where prescription anti-aging pharmaceutical sales are estimated by industry associations at above RMB 200 billion) carries a second regulatory clock the cap-table model does not account for. A venture that requires NMPA approval to address mainland China demand carries a second regulatory clock the cap-table model does not account for. The HSA expedited pathway runs 12 to 24 months from a completed preclinical package. The NMPA clock starts after that, from a separate filing, under a general biologics standard with no published reprogramming-specific guidance.
Altos Labs has not registered a human partial reprogramming study on ClinicalTrials.gov as of May 2026. Neither has any other venture in the dedicated reprogramming category. NMPA's Center for Drug Evaluation requires Phase 1 human data before accepting an IND for any cell-based therapeutic in mainland China. The CDE has published no dedicated guidance on partial reprogramming. The first sponsor to register a Phase 1 with a validated epigenetic clock as the pre-specified primary endpoint will set the standard. No sponsor has filed.