Thought Silicon Valley TV show was a comedy.
It's a documentary.
An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
11–20 of 80 posts
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#12vampires
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#13Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#14They buy the blood from blood banks, so people donating blood don't know it's going to paranoid rich people instead of sick people, and they don't get any of the money! Edit: I thought it was illegal in the USA to pay for body parts, but there is an exception for plasma (and maybe the rest of the blood?). But it's already predatory http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/business/06plasma.html and this new business only ma…
maybe the blood banks need money to run their operations more than they need blood...
Then they should ask for money instead of blood.
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#15Start-ups in the health care field have difficulty managing their HIPAA / HITECH compliance. You would have to be a special kind of idiot to allow them anywhere near your blood.
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#16Putting aside the ookiness factor, the science here seems pretty tenuous. "Self-reported improvements that scientists have been unable to replicate in clinical trials" are what's behind every questionable medical practice from homepathy to crystal healing. Especially given the time and money involved in having to get regular transfusions, I'd think the practitioners would be better off using the time to spend an extr…
Plus the small but non-zero risk when receiving a transfusion. Disease screening isn't perfect and there are other risks too.
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#17They buy the blood from blood banks, so people donating blood don't know it's going to paranoid rich people instead of sick people, and they don't get any of the money! Edit: I thought it was illegal in the USA to pay for body parts, but there is an exception for plasma (and maybe the rest of the blood?). But it's already predatory http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/business/06plasma.html and this new business only ma…
"His start-up, Ambrosia, is charging about $8,000 a pop for blood transfusions" And a quick google search says that people donating to a blood bank get $20 to $60 a pint, and the blood banks sell for $200-$600 a pint. I wonder if blood banks will figure out the model here and sell direct.
Blood banks in the US tend not to pay for whole blood.
Plasma donations are often paid though.
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#18The title should be "a scam startup is stealing money from fool people".
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#19Who knew that Countess Bathory was a visionary entrepreneur?
Re: An anti-ageing startup is offering transfusions of blood from young people
#20This remembers the death of Gianbattista Cibo in 1492, or Pope Inmocent VIII, and an attempt from a foreign doctor to revive him on his deathbed by blood transfusions from three young male children (who died as well in the process).