https://www.wcvb.com/article/local-company-working-on-treatment-to-reverse-hearing-loss/26596728
Frequency Therapeutics is a Massachusetts company hoping to reverse hearing loss using a cutting edge treatment. We first introduced you to the company almost two years ago as it was developing the drug "FX-322."
Humans are born with about 15,000 tiny hairs in each ear, which act like antennas to pick up sound.
Loud noises will kill them off and the human body just throws them away, never to be replaced. Frequency Therapeutics developed a drug they say can convince nearby stem cells to regenerate the destroyed hair follicles. If you can regrow the hair, the belief is you can restore your hearing.
"Really, the goal is to show we can do two things for humans: we can help people hear sound more loudly, and the second half of that is they can hear the sound more clearly," David Lucchino, the co-founder and CEO of Frequency Therapeutics said.
Phase one of the FDA process included injecting 24 patients with a gel during a five minute outpatient procedure last year.
"Phase 1 proved no safety issues and that's all that study was designed to do," Lucchino said. Phase 2 will explore if the drug can be used in multiple doses.
If all goes well, Frequency Therapeutics plans on asking the FDA to fast track the drug, citing recent studies that link hearing loss to other diseases like depression and dementia."
- They are claiming phase 1/2 was just a "phase 1" study... nothing about efficacy .
- Good news is that it was safe! No hyperacusis or other damage to hearing as some have feared.
- "Phase 2 will explore if the drug can be used in multiple doses." -- I guess one dose had some minor effect, but hopefully the effect will be better from multiple injections?