Carlo Nakhle, Business Director – Havas Life Middle East, examines how Dubai and Saudi Arabia are embedding longevity science into regulated healthcare infrastructure, shifting the focus from lifespan extension to measurable gains in healthspan. Drawing on Havas’s Superaging research and recent policy developments, including Dubai’s Law No. 17 of 2026, he argues that evidence-based prevention, not wellness branding, will determine whether the Gulf’s ambitions deliver lasting public-health outcomes.
For decades, healthcare systems have been judged by how effectively they diagnose and treat disease. The next test will be far more demanding: how effectively they prevent people from becoming patients in the first place.
That is the real significance of the Gulf’s growing investment in longevity.
This is not about luxury wellness, biohacking or the pursuit of extraordinary lifespans. It is about building healthcare systems capable of extending the number of years people remain healthy, independent and economically productive and creating the regulatory frameworks needed to ensure scientific progress is governed by evidence rather than hype.
Dubai’s decision to establish the Dubai Longevity Authority marks one of the most significant healthcare policy developments the region has seen in recent years. Through Law No. 17 of 2026, Dubai is creating a dedicated authority responsible for regulating longevity, wellness and advanced healthcare, overseeing everything from research and clinical trials to innovation, manufacturing and service delivery.
This is much more than another government initiative.
It is recognition that longevity has moved beyond the boundaries of wellness and entered the realm of healthcare policy, regulation and economic strategy.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia is advancing the agenda from a complementary perspective. Through Vision 2030’s Health Sector Transformation Programme, the Kingdom has increased national life expectancy from 74 years in 2016 to 78.8 years in 2024, with a target of reaching 80 years by 2030. Alongside these reforms, the Riyadh-based Hevolution Foundation has emerged as one of the world’s largest funders of ageing research, investing in geroscience and scientific innovation aimed at extending healthy years of life rather than simply increasing lifespan.
Taken together, these developments tell us something important. The Gulf is no longer waiting for the longevity economy to mature elsewhere. It is building the regulatory, scientific and investment foundations to shape it.
From lifespan to healthspan
Perhaps the biggest misconception surrounding longevity is that it is simply about living longer. It isn’t. The future of healthcare is not defined by adding more years to life. It is defined by adding more life to those years.
For decades, medical innovation has focused primarily on increasing lifespan. The result is undeniable, we are living longer than ever before. But longevity has also exposed a new challenge. Too many people spend those additional years managing chronic disease, declining mobility, cognitive impairment and reduced independence.
Extending lifespan without improving healthspan simply shifts the burden.
Extending healthspan changes the equation entirely.
It delays disease, preserves independence, improves quality of life and reduces pressure on healthcare systems already facing unprecedented demographic and economic challenges.
That is why the conversation around longevity is changing. It is no longer a question of how long we can live. It is increasingly becoming a question of how long we can remain healthy.
Consumers are already thinking differently
Interestingly, this policy shift is happening at precisely the moment consumer behaviour is changing.
At Havas, our latest Superaging report explored one of the biggest cultural and healthcare transformations taking place globally. What we found was striking.
Longevity is no longer viewed as a niche scientific pursuit reserved for elite biohackers or ageing populations. Instead, it is becoming one of the defining forces reshaping healthcare, biotechnology, nutrition, technology, insurance, hospitality and financial services.
Consumers are no longer simply preparing for retirement. They are preparing for longevity.
Our research found that 83% of consumers are actively planning for a longer life in at least one way, rising to 95% among Prosumers. They are investing in preventative healthcare, nutrition, movement, recovery, diagnostics and personalised health, not because they fear getting older, but because they want to remain healthier for longer.
Perhaps even more interesting is who is driving this change.
The longevity consumer is no longer exclusively older.
Millennials and Gen Z are adopting preventative behaviours decades earlier than previous generations. They are strength training to preserve muscle mass, tracking sleep quality, monitoring metabolic health and viewing health as a long-term investment rather than a reactive necessity.
In many ways, health has become the new form of wealth.
As our report suggests, consumers are increasingly evaluating products, services and experiences through a simple question:
Will this help me live better for longer?
That shift extends well beyond healthcare.
Longevity is becoming a design principle across industries.
Technology companies are repositioning devices as health companions rather than lifestyle accessories. Hospitality brands are creating recovery-focused experiences. Nutrition companies are moving toward personalised interventions. Even financial institutions are beginning to consider longer, healthier lives when thinking about retirement and wealth planning.
The most powerful insight from our research is perhaps the simplest one:
The promise of the Superaging Era is not simply more years of life, but more life in your years.
Healthcare must now catch up
Consumers may be moving quickly, but healthcare systems must move carefully. The Gulf’s longevity opportunity will not be won through wellness branding. It will be won through healthcare infrastructure. That means regulated clinical pathways. Robust scientific evidence. Responsible use of patient data. Accessible prevention models. Clinical validation. Public trust.
This is where Dubai’s approach becomes particularly important. By establishing a dedicated regulatory authority, the emirate is acknowledging that longevity cannot simply become another commercial wellness category. It requires governance, oversight and accountability.
Innovation without regulation risks creating confusion. Regulation without innovation risks slowing progress. Healthcare systems will increasingly need to find the balance between the two.
A stress test for the healthcare sector
Longevity is no longer a single healthcare category. It is becoming a stress test for the healthcare system itself. Hospitals will increasingly compete not only on treatment outcomes but on their ability to prevent disease earlier. Pharmaceutical companies will increasingly focus on delaying disease progression rather than simply managing advanced illness. Health insurers will face growing questions around reimbursement for interventions that prevent disease years before symptoms appear. Digital health companies will move beyond monitoring patients toward predicting risk and enabling earlier intervention. And regulators will need entirely new frameworks for evaluating therapies designed to slow biological ageing rather than cure a recognised disease.
These are questions healthcare systems have never had to answer before.
How should biological-age biomarkers be validated?
When does ageing become something medicine should treat?
How should reimbursement models evolve when prevention may reduce costs decades into the future rather than immediately?
How do regulators distinguish evidence-based longevity medicine from commercially attractive wellness claims?
These questions are no longer theoretical.
They are becoming policy questions.
The opportunity is bigger than longevity
There is another reason this conversation matters.
The longevity economy should not be viewed simply as another healthcare market.
It represents the convergence of biotechnology, clinical research, diagnostics, digital health, artificial intelligence, precision medicine, nutrition, insurance, preventive care and ageing infrastructure. More importantly, it creates an opportunity to rethink healthcare itself.
For decades, healthcare has been organised around treating disease.
The next generation of healthcare will increasingly be organised around delaying disease. That represents one of the biggest structural shifts the industry has experienced in decades. The countries that succeed will not necessarily be those with the largest hospitals or the newest technology.
They will be those capable of integrating research, regulation, reimbursement, clinical evidence and innovation into a healthcare system that rewards prevention as much as treatment.
The measure of success
The Gulf’s longevity race has begun. But success should not be measured by who builds the most sophisticated clinics, attracts the largest investment funds or markets the most aspirational version of ageing. It should be measured by something much harder.
Whether diabetes develops later.
Whether cardiovascular disease is prevented rather than treated.
Whether cognitive decline is delayed.
Whether healthy life expectancy rises, not simply average life expectancy.
Dubai is building the regulatory architecture.
Saudi Arabia is investing in healthspan science and national healthcare transformation.
The opportunity now belongs to the wider healthcare sector, to researchers, clinicians, policymakers, pharmaceutical companies, payers and innovators, to transform longevity from an exciting promise into a measurable public-health outcome.
Because the future of healthcare will not be defined by how long we help people live.
It will be defined by how long we help them live well.
- Read the full report, Superaging: 2026_HAVAS_Superaging_Report
About the author
Carlo Nakhle is Business Director of Havas Life Middle East, where he leads the agency’s regional healthcare practice. He advises leading healthcare organizations across the GCC on corporate reputation, healthcare communications, patient engagement and strategic growth initiatives. With more than 15 years of international experience spanning healthcare, pharmaceuticals and strategic communications, he works with governments, healthcare providers and life sciences companies to help translate complex healthcare challenges into meaningful public dialogue, stronger stakeholder engagement and sustainable growth.
