Farbood Nivi has lots of plans. Dying isn't one of them.

'If there's a chance I can live indefinitely, I'll do what it takes to make that happen,' says the 48-year-old tech bro in Los Angeles.

Nivi's quest for eternal — or at least prolonged — life led him to start peptide therapy a decade ago, long before the purported age-defying treatment became popular among celebrities including Hugh Jackman, Joe Rogan and Jennifer Aniston.

He traveled to Honduras last year to have follistatin, a protein, injected into his right shoulder in an experimental gene therapy to help him maintain muscle growth. 

And he's planning another trip back to Honduras this year for a different experimental gene therapy involving klotho, a protein he hopes will reverse plaque build-up in his arteries and maybe increase his IQ by five or 10 points while it's at it.

Nivi and many longevity pursuers like him would prefer to stay in the U.S. rather than having to travel abroad for experimental treatments. 

And now, a law recently passed in Montana may position that state as the go-to spot for Americans seeking eternal youth.

The measure makes Montana the only U.S. state to legalize so-called 'experimental treatment centers.' 

A new law in Montana has made it the first state to legalize 'experimental treatment centers.' Pictured: Biotech investor Kenneth Scott undergoing Hyperthermic Ozone and Carbonic Acid Transdermal Therapy

Celebrities such as Joe Rogan and Hailey Bieber have openly spoken about taking anti-aging drugs and supplements including Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) which they claim makes them feel more energized, youthful, and healthy

Clinics and doctors there will be able to administer drugs, biological products, medical devices or other treatments that have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The law was pushed by longevity crusaders and executives from biotech companies who leveraged Montana's anti-regulation political landscape in hopes of creating a proving ground for rejuvenating stem cells, editing DNA coding and other ways to slow- and even reverse the aging process.

Approval for the centers comes as 76 million American Baby Boomers are getting old and as longevity enthusiasts, including those now running federal health agencies, speak of prolonged youth as a viable possibility.

Whether the experimental treatments will actually work, even leaders in the movement acknowledge, is a crapshoot.

'Montana's taking a libertarian approach that consumers should be able to do what they want with their bodies,' says Adam Gries, co-founder and CEO of the Vitalism Foundation, which describes itself as a 'revolutionary movement against death and biological decline.'

Its mission, according to its website, 'is to end aging and offer freedom from death to all.'

'If people want to live longer, they should have a shot at it,' says Montana's House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick.

Nivi, for his part, is comfortable with the risks of experimental treatments:

During season one of The Kardashians on Hulu in 2022, Kendall Jenner was filmed getting the drip with her friend, A-lister Hailey Bieber

'I'm gonna NAD for the rest of my life, and I'm never gonna age,' Bieber said as she sat on a couch getting the treatment done alongside Jenner

'I look at it this way: It's better than the risks of doing nothing, which just leaves you with a 100% chance of growing old and dying.'

Like most states and the federal government, Montana already had a so-called 'Right to Try' law providing access to experimental treatments for terminally ill patients whose conditions have not improved with therapies approved by the FDA.

What sets the state apart is that it has expanded access to anyone who wants unproven treatments, regardless of their prognosis, and now has the licensing and regulatory framework to make them less risky to provide. 

The law removes the state's ability to yank licenses from doctors, nurses and pharmacists for making those treatments available.

Treatments will only need to have passed Phase 1 clinical trials, the earliest and smallest testing stage that evaluates the safety of a drug, not whether it works.

Montana's law circumvents the more rigorous Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials the FDA typically requires before drugs and other therapies can be administered.

Conceivably, treatments for conditions such as deafness and Lou Gehrig's disease could become available under the law.

But the increasingly lucrative longevity industry has the most to gain from legislation that people in the field had direct involvement in drafting. 

Jennifer Aniston has admitted to dabbling with cosmetic procedures to keep herself looking youthful, including peptide injections and 'salmon sperm facials' 

Biohacker Bryan Johnson, 47, has famously promoted his plan for longevity and revealed he mixes his son's blood with his own to rejuvenate his cells

Those include investor Niklas Anzinger, who has envisioned creating what he calls a 'Los Alamos for longevity,' according to a report by a company that trains people in the field of medicine development.

'This isn't about trying to cure cancer,' says Montana state Rep. Brian Close of Bozeman. 'This is a law by venture capitalists aimed at rich people who want to live forever.'

Longevity clinics have popped up nationwide offering aging Baby Boomers batteries of medical tests to understand their biological age as it relates to their chronological age and learn about dietary and lifestyle adjustments that may prolong their good health — and, ideally, their lives. 

Some of those clinics offer nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ treatments, which are believed to help metabolism, DNA repair, immunity and longevity. 

Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and Gwyneth Paltrow have said they've taken NAD+ injections and supplements.

Such concierge services typically cost $6,000 to $25,000 a year, but have stopped short of providing experimental medical treatments for which some Americans have been traveling overseas. Japan has become a hotspot for various stem cell therapies.

Mexico, Panama, Honduras, several islands in the Caribbean, the United Arab Emirates and Lithuania also have drawn longevity seekers with treatments that so far have not been available in the U.S.

The industry lobbied Montana lawmakers with the promise that the new law would lure medical tourists looking not just for emerging treatments at the experimental centers, but also for luxury resorts and residential communities in Big Sky Country designed around the growing movement to slow the aging process.

The state's 'Right to Try' law, signed by Governor Greg Gianforte on May 12, has expanded access to anyone who wants unproven treatments, regardless of their prognosis

The controversial legislation may position Montana as the 'medical wild west' and the go-to spot for Americans seeking eternal youth; pictured above is general views of Bozeman, Montana

Signed by Governor Greg Gianforte on May 12, Montana's law comes as many Americans are departing from evidence-based medicine in search of nontraditional approaches to healthcare. 

The longevity movement aims to increase 'healthspan' by shortening years of age-related illness through medical and technological advances, including artificial intelligence. 

Many enthusiasts and biotech investors say those advancements will allow people to live 20 to 30% longer in the coming decades.

Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have invested full-force in anti-aging research.

Famed biohacker Bryan Johnson makes a habit of mixing his son's blood with his own to rejuvenate his cells. 

And Kenneth Scott, a 82-year-old biotech investor who claims to be 'the world's oldest biohacker,' is proud to call himself 'an educated guinea pig' for several experimental treatments overseas in the last 20 years.

'At my age, you don't want to wait five to 10 years for things to get approved by the FDA. You want to get on and do it,' he says.

The Saratoga Springs resident hopes Montana's law will speed up development of an experimental mitochondrial replacement therapy that he believes may help him live to 150.

82-year-old Kenneth Scott, who claims to be 'the world's oldest biohacker' says he hopes Montana's law will speed up development of an experimental mitochondrial replacement therapy that he believes may help him live to 150

Multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson Bryan made global headlines in 2023 in the world's first 'multi-generational blood plasma exchange' 

'If you know anybody who can help us raise $10million for a bioreactor, we could get that done in the next few years,' he says.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has been religious about his own anti-aging regimen, including NAD+ supplements and a host of vitamins he has said is too long to list. 

As the country's top health official, he has expressed support for research and development of anti-aging therapies, including those involving peptides, stem cells and genetic engineering.

Kennedy isn't the only longevity zealot in the Trump administration.

Jim O'Neil, Trump's pick as deputy secretary of health and human services, ran SENS Research Foundation, which has researched and developed regenerative medical treatments for age-related conditions. 

Marty Makary, head of the FDA, has said he believes there's evidence that the aging process may be influenced and potentially reversed to some extent. And Mehmet Oz, who oversees the Medicare and Medicaid systems, has spoken about the possibility of humans living to 120 or even 150 years old.

There is some legitimate research exploring how to slow the aging process.

Possible advances include follistatin gene therapy, like the one Nivi paid a company called Minicircle $20,000 for in Honduras. 

Some of those clinics offer nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ treatments, which are believed to help metabolism, DNA repair, immunity and longevity. Such concierge services typically cost $6,000 to $25,000 a year

He says it allowed him to put on muscle for six months and also elevated his mood.

Another much sought-after treatment claims to reduce LDL — or bad cholesterol — levels by inhibiting the PCSK9 protein. And the discovery of the APOE2 gene variant linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer's could potentially offer protection against dementia.

These are the types of treatments that longevity investors hope to fast-track in Montana.

'For those of us who want to see more accelerated biomedical innovation, Montana will be something to watch,' Gries says.

The state's health department has yet to license any experimental treatment centers, which likely won't be allowed to advertise their services. 

Doctors would need licenses to practice in the state, either moving or traveling there to administer treatments patients would learn about through word of mouth.

Critics of the centers have pointed out the fine line between optimism and false hope and cite a 2022 study showing that 90% of drugs fail clinical trials. 

They note the prevalence of pseudo-scientific treatments, unproven supplements and biohacks around which some companies and influencers spread anti-aging misinformation. 

And they fear Montana's clinics may trigger a modern-day crisis like the one involving thalidomide, the drug used to treat morning sickness in the late 1950s and early 1960s that later was proven to cause birth defects.

Melody Cunningham, the only physician in Montana's legislature, voted against the law, calling it, 'Uninformed and reckless.'

'I fear that people are going to be taken advantage of by these companies,' she says.

'There does not appear to be a scientific basis to their work,' Rep. Close adds of the biotech firms that pushed for the measure. 

'They came here to take advantage of us. This is just another example of being colonized by special interests.'

Fearing a Wild West medical environment in which desperate patients sign up blindly for experimental treatment, they led efforts to resist the industry's push for legal immunity if treatments harm patients. 

They and other lawmakers also insisted on provisions requiring that patients have recommendations from their current physicians before seeking experimental treatments and give consent that they've evaluated other medical options and know that experimental treatments pose potential risks.

Other critics worried the centers would only benefit wealthy patients who can afford experimental treatments, which insurance companies won't likely cover. 

To address their concerns, the law requires clinics to allocate 2% of their profits to help low-income patients in Montana access these therapies.

Those concessions aren't enough for medical ethicist Sharona Hoffman, professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Although she empathizes with patients' desperation for medical cures, fear of aging and anxiety about mortality, she says administering unproven medical treatment 'raises a lot of concerns.'

'For some people, it's going to make Montana look like a pioneer, a state with courage and initiative,' she says of the new law. 

'To others, it makes a mockery of the full FDA system, which tries to be as careful as possible.'

As Hoffman tells it, the U.S. medical establishment so far seems unconcerned about losing patients to a flyover state offering unproven treatments:

'I'm not sure people pay a lot of attention to what's going on in Montana.'