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Future of hearing loss

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What is the future of hearing loss? Will there be any medicine soon to end this hearing loss? Or can we eliminate hearing loss issue 100% using hearing aids?

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There will eventually be treatments, maybe not cures. Frequency Therapeutics will complete a phase 2a clinical trial in September. An earlier study reported substantial improvements in word recognition in 4 out of 6 participants with moderate to severe participants. The Regain Project completed a phase 2 trial last year but for some reason are yet to formally report. Research in inner ear disorders is a bit of a boom industry at the moment. There are startups all over the place.

Unfortunately, many of us here can recall learning that hearing loss will be cured in five years time. For some of us that was like twenty years ago. Just getting in here before the rush.

Will hearing aids correct for hearing loss 100%? No. They’ll get better however.

I am afraid to say “Hearing Loss” can never be corrected totally 100% at present or indeed anytime in the near future as Hearing Aids are fundamentally “Assistive Listening Devices” and as such they assist us to hear better and cannot restore our hearing! Even Cochlear Implantation doesn’t reach anything near 100% restoration, I believe it is a more electronic/tinny sound? Stem Cells might at some point in the future be the our only hope, but probably not in my lifetime? Cheers Kev

Two drugs I’m keeping an eye on are “FX-322” and “NHPN-1010”, esp the latter. The former supposedly does more for word recognition than sound levels. The latter supposedly sounds like earplugs getting taken out.

I had a quick look at NHPN-1010. It seems to be for acute acoustic trauma, to be taken just before or just after the event.

My expectations of FX-322 have fluctuated over the years I’ve been following them. At the beginning they were more less claiming a possible ‘cure’. They’ve toned down their language lately, The significant improvements in word recognition in their 1b trial may have been due to improvements in extended high-frequency hearing- which weren’t actually measured in that study. They are being measured in the current clinical trial. It seems to me now that they are claiming improvements in high frequency hearing as their goal. I’d take that if and when it’s on offer, but I was hoping for more.

Edited
@d_Wooluf said:

I had a quick look at NHPN-1010. It seems to be for acute acoustic trauma, to be taken just before or just after the event.

You are correct. I was off a bit there. The one I meant to refer to was OPI-001 (same company):

http://otologicpharma.com/the-science/13

http://otologicpharma.com/pipeline/13

The aim of OPI-001 is the treatment of both acute and chronic sensorineural hearing loss through the regeneration of sensory hair cells in the inner ear. Sensory hair cells may be lost through trauma, toxins, noise exposure, ageing, or a combination of factors, creating a permanent loss of hearing. The regeneration of sensory hair cells has the potential to impact those with chronic hearing loss, including those with age-related hearing loss. The program has received funding from the US Department of Defense to further the development of this innovative technology.

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