Frier Levitt is a boutique law firm in Pine Brook that has worked to establish itself as health care law experts. Along the way, it made a name for itself on a specialty within that area …
And it’s one that’s aging well.
Daniel Frier, co-founder of Frier Levitt and chair of the firm’s health care practice, said there’s been more interest than ever in the anti-aging and wellness business, an area the firm considers itself as having a lot of experience advising clients in.
“That might be hormone replacement therapy, weight loss drugs or injectables such as Botox,” he said. “All around the country, we’re seeing entrepreneurialism, folks putting money into that, trying to put a regulatory-compliant structure together and selling these businesses.”
There’s not much explanation needed: These businesses are offering services, drugs or elective procedures that people have been — and are increasingly often — spending money on.
In fact, some so-called “longevity” or “rejuvenation” startups are raking in massive investments. Amazon’s billionaire Jeff Bezos reportedly invested in Altos Labs, a Silicon Valley venture that wants to develop a method of halting or reversing the aging process.
Even if not all businesses in the anti-aging and wellness space have the goal of actually turning back the biological clock, they generally share the need to navigate regulatory and legal issues.
“While it sounds like anti-aging and wellness can be owned by a businessperson — in fact, in most states, it’s considered a health care service,” Frier said. “What that means is the entity providing the service must be owned by a licensed physician.”
That’s true for New Jersey. And it means legal experts have to help these businesses set up business structures that allow investor dollars to flow through entities owned by physicians.
Along with that, there’s also Food and Drug Administration regulations to move clients through, as well as questions that arise around state-specific laws that determine what level of medical practitioner supervision is needed for providing these services.
Frier is going to be talking to entrepreneurs about these topics when he travels next month to a Las Vegas conference that’s known as the world’s largest anti-aging business conference.
“We’ve established a presence in this, especially on the web and through Google searches, in the region,” he said. “But because our market is national, we probably have an equal number of clients in this space outside New York and New Jersey. And it’s growing.”
