You Can Invest in Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

All my life I had to grind and hustle.
I had to work like Kobe so I could shine like Russell.
…. Money, I got money

With apologies to Leikeli47 and his crew as well as anyone who does not know what I am referring to or who knows and dislikes hip hop.

The finances of those over 50

If I am correct, many of you have been grinding and hustling your entire lives. You now, hopefully, have a little money put aside. In total, we who are “of a certain age” have a lot of money put aside. Paul Irving writing for Next Avenue and Forbes.com reported that Americans over 50 already account for 7.6 trillion dollars in direct spending and related financial activity. Those same folks control more than 80% of household wealth in this country.¹

...Money. I got money.

Now that we have it, however, we are finding we need to spend it. Advanced age brings problems that cost. And since we have to spend it, there are a whole lot of people standing in line to take it.

A growing population

You may not realize this, but age-related macular degeneration is big business. With the aging of the population our numbers are increasing. That means a growing patient pool of individuals willing and generally able to pay for treatments for the condition.

Age-related macular degeneration market

Organizations such as Global Market Futures are predicting the worldwide, age-related macular degeneration market is set to expand drastically if not explode. In February, 2019 MarketWatch published an article telling people age-related macular degeneration could potentially be a hot investment. A comment at the end of the article described the AMD market as “lucrative. It went on to say the rising awareness of the disease is further expected to boost the growth trajectory. Of course, as the comment also points out, the high costs of drugs (and drug development, I might add), as well as other factors, may keep the market from expanding as predicted.²

Investment restrictions and limitations

Medgadget, in their article Age-Related Macular Degeneration Industry - Treatment, Overlook with a review to 2023 also mentions tougher FDA restriction as a brake on market growth. There are inhibiting factors on how much money investments in AMD can actually make for the investors.³

Just the same, lots of people smell an opportunity to help themselves at the same time they are helping us. If their investments help big pharma to come up with something that really works, how much do we care?

….Money. They got money?

Investing in AMD and yourself

Then again, maybe we could have our cake and eat it too. Maybe we too can get on the AMD gravy train. Maybe we can get back some of that money we spend on things like copays for “eye shots.” Maybe buying futures in our own futures is not such a bad idea!

The Medgadget piece lists the big player in the game. These include Hoffman-LaRoche, Regeneron, Novartis, and Santen Pharmaceuticals. I was looking at stem cell research by Astellas. The study I am in is Apellis. However, I have no recommendations. Talk to your investment advisor and see who has the most bang for your buck. Always do your homework - or have it done - and invest wisely. Kill two birds with one stone. Help fund AMD research and make money. Now THAT is a thought.

Make informed decisions

And once again, this time through a lyric snippet: be ...Too smart ‘cause I’m always scopin.’ In other words, know in what you invest and invest with your head and not just your heart. Wanting to defeat this condition is an admirable goal but it is not the only goal. We want you to be able to sing hip hop!

Money, I got money.