Why regenerative medicine infrastructure must be the next global economic priority

We stand at the threshold of humanity's most profound transformation. By 2050, the number of people over the 60 in the world will reach 2.1 billion – double today's figure.

Even more remarkably, by the mid-2030s, people over the age of 80 will outnumber infants for the first time in history. This demographic shift is not a crisis. It is one of our greatest achievements. And for the first time, we have the tools to turn it into an unprecedented opportunity.

We are no longer limited to extending lifespan — now, we can extend health itself. Without intervention, healthcare spending across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries is already around 9-10% of GDP and expected to rise further as populations age.

Those models assume nothing changes. But if we close the gap between lifespan – the length of time someone lives – and healthspan – the number of years a person lives in good health – the economic burden of ageing becomes a powerful source of growth.

For generations, medicine treated age-related diseases as separate problems that emerged unpredictably. However, many age-related diseases reflect shared patterns of cellular dysfunction. When we target cells, we can restore lost function rather than merely manage decline.

Healthcare capacity varies greatly across the world. Bangladesh spends about $61 per capita on health, according to the World Bank. Saudi Arabia invests about $1,600, while Germany spends more than $6,200. The United States spends more than $13,000 per person each year, and “personal healthcare spending” for those in the 65-and-older age group was $22,356 in 2020.

Despite huge differences in demographics and lifestyle, population ageing is becoming a defining challenge worldwide. In the US alone, the number of people aged 65 and older is projected to increase from about 58 million in 2022 to roughly 82 million by 2050. That represents a 40-42% increase and shifts the share of older adults in the population from 17% to about 23%.

As the elderly population grows, the financial burden on public and private health systems is likely to increase: for instance, US federal projections warn that spending on Medicare could grow by nearly 10% annually through 2030.

In Saudi Arabia, the number of adults over 65 per 100 working-age adults is set to nearly double between 2020 and 2030, creating significant pressures on healthcare, social services and national policy. Ageing is the great equalizer – every society faces the same cellular decline, loss of independence and erosion of quality of life. That is why regenerative medicine must be treated as essential infrastructure, not a luxury. The world needs solutions that can scale.

Cellino is an AI-powered, laser-based, fully automated manufacturing platform for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). By combining high-resolution optics, single-cell imaging and machine learning-guided cell selection, the platform can generate clinical-grade stem cells with unprecedented precision, speed and consistency, without manual intervention.

iPSCs are enabling what once seemed impossible. Derived from ordinary adult tissue and reprogrammed into a youthful, flexible state, they can become any cell type in the human body. This enables scientists to create healthy, personalized replacement cells genetically matched to each patient, reducing rejection risk and opening the door to truly individualized therapies.

Around the world, Cellino is working with leading health systems and therapeutic innovators to turn regenerative medicine into deployable infrastructure. In the US, Cellino has partnered with Mass General Brigham to launch the nation’s first Nebula-powered hospital-based iPSC Foundry, demonstrating how automated, point-of-care manufacturing can transform access to personalized therapies. In Asia, Cellino’s collaboration with South Korea’s Karis Bio is advancing the world’s first clinical-stage autologous iPSC therapy for cardiovascular disease.

In the Middle East, Cellino is working with Matricelf to scale personalized spinal cord injury therapies through a double-autologous tissue engineering process. Matricelf has already transformed Cellino-generated iPSCs into functional neural networks. Together, these partnerships highlight what is possible when advanced AI-driven biomanufacturing is embedded directly into the global therapeutic ecosystem: regenerative medicine becomes scalable, distributed, and capable of reaching patients wherever care is delivered.

Meanwhile, clinical progress elsewhere also continues to accelerate. In Japan, transplanted dopamine-producing cells have survived for years in people with Parkinson’s disease, and in the US, stem cell-derived islet cells have restored insulin production in individuals with Type 1 diabetes. These breakthroughs signal a future in which damaged tissues and organs can be repaired with a patient’s own biology.

The science is ready – scaling manufacturing is the next frontier. Today, most iPSC production remains manual, slow and costly, often exceeding $500,000 per patient. Fifty years ago, transistors were handcrafted; now TSMC produces millions per year. Cellino applies the same engineering principles to cell manufacturing, using AI-driven optics, automation and robotics to deliver reproducible, scalable production of patient-specific cells.

Pharmaceutical companies are already investing heavily in regenerative medicine. Bayer has invested $250 million to a new cell therapy manufacturing facility, Sumitomo Pharma has expanded its iPSC manufacturing campus in Japan and the Novo Nordisk Foundation has pledged DKK 2.2 billion ($343 million) to accelerate industrial-scale stem cell development. Together, these investments show that the infrastructure for scalable, global regenerative medicine is rapidly taking shape, marking the start of a new industrial era.

In November 2025, Eli Lilly became the first pharmaceutical company in history to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion, driven by global demand for GLP-1 medicines. These medicines improve metabolic health across multiple organ systems and extend functional healthspan. They represent the first longevity drugs to achieve global scale.

The economic signal is already clear: treatments that extend healthy, productive years create enormous value. GLP-1 drugs have shown that slowing metabolic decline can transform health trajectories. Regenerative therapies go a step further, with the potential to repair or replace damaged tissues and restore function.

According to analysis from the McKinsey Health Institute, improving healthspan could generate trillions of dollars in economic benefit each year, largely by reducing disability, extending workforce participation and lowering the burden of chronic disease.

MHI estimates that cutting the global impact of age-related disease in half could deliver about $2 trillion in annual economic gains. In this light, regenerative medicine is not only a scientific breakthrough – it is one of the most powerful levers we have for strengthening global prosperity.

To capture this opportunity, countries need a coordinated strategy built around four pillars.

We are entering an era in which longer lives can become an asset rather than a burden. The infrastructure we build today will determine whether a child born in 2030 experiences a century of vitality or a century of decline.

Regenerative medicine has already crossed the scientific threshold; now we must cross the infrastructural one. The clinical data exists, the manufacturing principles are proven, and the economic incentive is undeniable. The question is no longer whether we can do this, it is whether we will build the systems required to deliver these breakthroughs at scale.

Every dollar invested in healthspan infrastructure reduces suffering, strengthens productivity and expands access. The path forward demands urgency, coordination and a commitment to scale.

If policy-makers, investors, healthcare leaders and citizens choose action over hesitation, this decade will be remembered as the moment humanity transformed ageing from inevitable decline into a triumph of ingenuity – not a future we waited for, but one we built.