Audion Therapeutics

[nills]

Here is another company working on hearing loss and cell regeneration.

I think this is the one that discovered that Notch inhibition transforms subcells into haircells.

nothing new but an other one toput on the radar

http://www.audiontherapeutics.com/

 

[tomytl]

Here is another company working on hearing loss and cell regeneration.

I think this is the one that discovered that Notch inhibition transforms subcells into haircells.

nothing new but an other one toput on the radar

http://www.audiontherapeutics.com/

yes, it's the compamy Dr. Albert Edge from Harvard working with.
let's hope for some new findings.. they still stuck in hair cell regeneration
in adults.

 

[benryu]

It's a very young project, but I am impresseds by their round A funding. Eli Lilly is huge, and this company is well known for being extremly risk averse, they would never invest in something without at least a strong proof of concept.

What is catching my attention is this sentence: "To date, Audion has identified several compounds that can regenerate hair cells in laboratory–based cell culture assays".

It means one things that blows my mind:
We knew that a gene in mice, called Rb1, shuts down the growth of new hair cells early in development. Mature mice were able to regenerate their hair cells when the Rb1 gene was blocked.

--> this was never tested on human hair cell (to my limited knowledge ^_^), but here it seems they did it according to their statement!!?​

Maybe this is the reason why Eli Lilly invested money in this company...
Let's wait & see !

 

[tomytl]

It's a very young project, but I am impresseds by their round A funding. Eli Lilly is huge, and this company is well known for being extremly risk averse, they would never invest in something without at least a strong proof of concept.

What is catching my attention is this sentence: "To date, Audion has identified several compounds that can regenerate hair cells in laboratory–based cell culture assays".

It means one things that blows my mind:
We knew that a gene in mice, called Rb1, shuts down the growth of new hair cells early in development. Mature mice were able to regenerate their hair cells when the Rb1 gene was blocked.

--> this was never tested on human hair cell (to my limited knowledge ^_^), but here it seems they did it according to their statement!!?​

Maybe this is the reason why Eli Lilly invested money in this company...
Let's wait & see !

Audion is arround for some years, they had earlier some partners like Sanofi.
Now Lilly invested, that's good.
I guess this kind of companies like Audion,Soundpharma,Roche, Novartis do a lot research in the background.
I'm very curious about the Genvec/Novartis human trial.

 

[blablahhh]

They might as well cancel their drug after this one.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25873862

 

[AnonymousGiraffe]

Dear,


Thank you for your interest in Audion and our drug development programme for a potential treatment of acquired sensorineural hearing loss. We advise you to contact your ENT doctor and discuss the current available treatments and devices that best suit your specific needs.


The clinical trial is planned to commence in the second half of 2017 and we recommend that you follow the news released online.


Thank you again and we wish you all the best


Audion Team

 

[Foncky]

@AnonymousGiraffe not sure to understand, are you quoting a message you got from Audion or are you from Audion ?

Thanks anyway, this is good news.

 

[AnonymousGiraffe]

@Foncky, I sent them an email and this is what I got as Auto-reply.

 

[Mricha37]

That's very exciting to know trials start this year!! I'm not too familiar with their treatment plan.

 

[Samir]

The clinical trial is planned to commence in the second half of 2017

If true, I predict it will start in November or December.

 

[RB2014]

Dear,


Thank you for your interest in Audion and our drug development programme for a potential treatment of acquired sensorineural hearing loss. We advise you to contact your ENT doctor and discuss the current available treatments and devices that best suit your specific needs.


The clinical trial is planned to commence in the second half of 2017 and we recommend that you follow the news released online.


Thank you again and we wish you all the best


Audion Team

Basically they said go get some hearing aides because there are no treatments for hearing loss.

 

[AnonymousGiraffe]

Well, I don't know. I think we should be a little bit more optimistic about these developments. Six months ago I also received an email from them in which they said: still planning clinical trials. And nowadays they are saying second half of 2017 so apparently they are making big progress. They have same kind of approach as frequency for hair cell regeneration. They work together with UCL London and a bunch of other Universities around Europa. They are part of the "Regain Your Hearing" project supported by the European Commission. http://www.regainyourhearing.eu/

The company is originally dutch and I am doing my best to bring awareness for these kind of projects in the media and the government here in the Netherlands. The past months there was a quite a lot of attention for hearing loss among the youth in the media. I am trying and hoping that the next big news event will be about the regeneration of the hearing.

 

[Samir]

@AnonymousGiraffe Don't forget the Otostem project. The way I figure is they will probably wait for the Otostem project to complete before they begin the clinical trial. Starting clinical trials in second half of 2017 is probably a little bit too optimistic. They will need some time to process and analyze the data from the Otostem project. If they do start the trials in 2017 it will likely happen in November or December.

 

[AnonymousGiraffe]

@Samir you made the situation pretty clear in the Acousia Therapeutics thread. I was already wondering where the Germans where regarding these kind of projects. But it very good to see that they are all working together behind the scenes. Audion, Acousia, Massachusetts, Stanford and Marcelino at Sheffield. I actually think that the trial Audion Therapeutics planned for later this year is a part of the Otostem project. Or at least they have a very strong connection with the project.

 

[Samir]

I actually think that the trial Audion Therapeutics planned for later this year is a part of the Otostem project.

What makes you think that? I have thought about it, and you may be right. I just figured they would want to complete the Otostem project first. The Otostem project ends in October this year. But they may already have enough information to begin the trial. Hopefully it has been a fruitful project for everyone involved. They have actually made the second annual report on the progress of Otostem, I just have not had time to read it. Either way! I'm sure the trial is less than a year away. Who knows, it might as well coincide with the Frequency trial.

 

[AnonymousGiraffe]

@Samir Audion received 712.000 Euro from the Otostem project. And this funding was part of the FP7-HEALTH-2013-INNOVATION-1. And at the moment we have the Horizon 2020 program and Audion received 5.8 million Euro from this program. I don't know about all the other partners of the Otosem project but I guess they are also still funded by the European Commission and will continue working together after the Otostem project will end.

 

[Samir]

And at the moment we have the Horizon 2020 program and Audion received 5.8 million Euro from this program.

Indeed they did!

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Sept. 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Audion Therapeutics announced today that it has received a 2.5 million Euro Series B investment from INKEF Capital, a Netherlands based venture capital firm. In addition, Audion announced that, together with a strong international consortium of development partners, it was awarded a 5.8 million Euro grant through the Horizon 2020 program. The combined funds of 8.3 million Euro enable Audion to progress its lead program targeting sensorineural hearing loss to clinical Proof of Concept.

http://www.audiontherapeutics.com/2...ce-the-development-of-hearing-loss-treatment/

I don't know about all the other partners of the Otosem project but I guess they are also still funded by the European Commission and will continue working together after the Otostem project will end.

Acousia is currently only participating in the Otostem project with FP7 funding.
http://eudirecta.com/organization_panel.php?mod_art=177870&case=udb

But there is nothing stopping them from seeking a Horizon 2020 grant. Maybe they don't have enough personnel to cover all the duties and obligations since they are the smaller company. This may be the reason why they are not seeking more funding. It's not always about funding, you need people to do the actual work.

As for other participants, you will find that Uppsala university is running 32 Horizon 2020 funded projects, and as many as 273 FP7 funded projects. Of course not all of these are concerned with hearing and the inner ear. But if you start digging you will uncover a lot of EU funded research projects concerning balance and hearing disorders. Europe is faced with similar problems as America. Life expectancy has increased, people live longer, and we also have the young people going to concerts and listening to iPods all day long. Bad hearing is an increasing problem worldwide, but especially in the so called "developed" countries. Also, Europe wants to stay competitive in the new evolving markets such as regenerative medicine.

I will give you just one more project funded under FP7. It's called Targear. You will find the French biotech company Affischem here. You will also find that Massachusetts Eye and Ear has participated in several of these balance and hearing projects over the years, as has Stanford university. Which is great! These close collaborations with the US only started about 10 years ago.

It may not always seem like there is a lot going on, but you will be surprised what you uncover when you start digging deeper. It's in everyone's interest to do something about not only hearing disorders, but also balance disorders. Think about it! Balance disorders are much more debilitating than hearing loss and tinnitus put together! Think about Meniere's disease... as if vertigo attacks were not enough, they also have to endure hearing loss and tinnitus.

Also, many people who have acquired a hearing loss also experience problems with balance. These symptoms may be transient, and people may seem to recover from it, but their balance system may be compromised without them knowing it. It may be their brain that compensates for any deficiencies in the semi-circular canals, just like tinnitus seems to be the result of the brain trying to compensate for deficiencies in the cochlea. One of the things Rob Gerk noticed after his therapy was balance improvements.