Insilico Launches Longevity Vaccines Research to Clear Early Drivers of Aging

Insilico Medicine has launched Longevity Vaccines, a research program aimed at treatments that send a patient’s own immune cells after the earliest cellular drivers of age-related disease, the company announced on September 15, 2026.

The Hong Kong-listed drug developer (HKEX: 3696) said the work moves its aging-focused discovery effort beyond small molecules into RNA-encoded cell engineering inside the body.

Founder and co-CEO Alex Zhavoronkov said the company was built to treat aging and disease together, and that Longevity Vaccines applies the same approach to prevention: programmable, single-dose therapies that clear what the company calls the root-cause cells of age-related disease, starting with the immune system.

Background

Insilico says many diseases of aging are started and kept going by particular cell populations with known surface markers. The examples it gives are senescent cells that release inflammatory proteins, activated fibroblasts that drive fibrosis, and autoreactive lymphocytes that weaken the body’s tolerance of its own tissues.

Longevity Vaccines are meant to remove those populations early, and only for a limited time, rather than treat the damage that follows. The company says the idea follows published research in which engineered T cells cleared such cells and produced lasting functional effects from a single course of treatment.

How the Therapy Is Designed

The shared delivery format is a short-lived genetic instruction written in circular mRNA and packaged in a targeted lipid nanoparticle. Once inside the body, that instruction is meant to arm the patient’s own T cells to recognize and remove a chosen cell population.

Insilico says circular mRNA breaks down more slowly than linear mRNA, which supports expression that lasts but still shuts itself off. The targeted particle is meant to limit where the instruction goes.

Choosing what to aim at is the harder part. The company says a preventive target has to show up at the start of disease and leave a wide margin of safety. It plans to rank candidate surface antigens with Pharma.AI, using PandaOmics for target discovery, generative tools for binder design, Chemistry42 for delivery chemistry, and inClinico for trial design. Rankings would be checked in automated labs, with the results fed back into the models. Insilico’s aging foundation models and Virtual Aging Cell are meant to supply the age-specific context for finding the earliest cell states that diverge in a disease.

The program sits on the same dual-purpose strategy as rentosertib (ISM001-055), a TNIK inhibitor whose target and molecule were both produced with AI. Insilico says that program moved from target identification to a preclinical candidate in 18 months, later showed a restoration of lung capacity in a randomized Phase IIa trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and has entered Phase III.

Where It Starts

The first focus is the aging immune system: senescent lymphocytes that the company links to immunosenescence, weaker vaccine responses, and a higher risk of infection and cancer with age. Other indications under review share a defined starter-cell population the same chassis could reach, including metabolic dysfunction and membranous nephropathy.

What’s Next

Longevity Vaccines is a research initiative. The announcement does not give a timeline for a clinical candidate or a first trial.

Insilico also reported about $106 million in revenue for the first half of 2026, up 287% from a year earlier, and said it recorded its first profitable half-year since listing, with adjusted net profit above $51 million. It tied that result to licensing and research deals with partners including Eli Lilly, Servier, Takeda, and SK Biopharmaceuticals. Announced 2026 transactions had a total contract value of about $7.3 billion, the company said, bringing major collaborations since 2021 to about $11 billion.

The Program at a Glance

• Company: Insilico Medicine (HKEX: 3696)
• Program: Longevity Vaccines
• Modality: Circular mRNA in a targeted lipid nanoparticle, delivered in the body
• Intended effect: Arm a patient’s T cells to clear early disease-driving cells
• First focus: Senescent lymphocytes and immune-system rejuvenation
• Also under evaluation: Metabolic dysfunction and membranous nephropathy
• Platform: Pharma.AI, including PandaOmics, Chemistry42, and inClinico