They definitely a known entity, but there's not much evidence of recent productivity on their web site. The last publication listed is from 2013, and the last grants are also from 2013. If these are up to date, it would explain the 85% drop in government funding. Their 2016 "Letter from the CEO" talks about recently completed Phase 1 trials for a "hearing loss pill", but there is nothing on clinicaltrials.gov (
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=Hough+Ear+Institute&Search=Search) about such trials - unless the trials were conducted through another entity. There's a "research update" on the "hearing loss pill" from June 2015 (
http://houghear.org/noise-induced-hearing-loss-pill-update-infographic/) that doesn't provide any concrete information (e.g., a publication) but does ask for money.
There could be great things happening that just aren't making it to the web site due to limited funding being used for research rather than web updates.