OTO-313: tinnitus, definitely acute. May help some people more chronically.
It's for hidden hearing loss aka cochlear synaptopathy. But many researchers think that hidden hearing loss could be the cause of tinnitus (although it could be both hair-cell or synapse loss, anywhere where there is reduced auditory input). So it's reasonable to assume that it will benefit those of us with noise-induced tinnitus.
OTO-413 is for synapses - AKA speech-in-noise function. There could be benefit with tinnitus too although this has not yet been examined and neither was it something being measured in the primary trial.
It's aimed at hearing in noise specifically, and indirectly at hearing loss. The hopes are it will help with other hearing-related ailments as well.
Hearing loss called synaptopathy. Hearing-in-noise, specifically.
Has anyone talked about these potential treatments with their specialist?
Many believe that those with tinnitus as a symptom of noise-induced hearing loss or acquired sensorineural hearing loss will likely need both OTO-413 and FX-322 since the damage is likely mixed between synaptopathy and hair cell damage/loss.
You'd probably be very disappointed to find out just how little clinicians usually follow research (there are exceptions). Instead, they often wait for the new treatment or drug to come out and the pharmaceutical reps come by and train the doctors on the new drug (this is a big part of the marketing budget for new drugs).
Same - this condition is debilitating. Lighten or remove it and I'll let the doctor spit in my ear if necessary. Just give me some relief
I wish there was a sad react emoji.
Right now I'd like them to hurry the F up and confirm that tinnitus is impacted by these drugs.
We already know about the FX-322 anecdotes but they are measuring tinnitus results with their current trial.
You are so right, we need a bit more anecdotes about tinnitus improvement and not just hearing improvement before I dare to believe it for real...
Just a few more weeks to wait. I can see the headlines now for FX-322: "20-30 dB restored across frequencies above 1 kHz, tinnitus greatly reduced or eliminated in 87% of patients".
I also have my doubts.
We don't know if it was the majority or if it wasn't though. All we know is some participants reported tinnitus improvement. Some could have had improvement and not mentioned it. Some could have mentioned it but the ENTs didn't pass on the information because it's anecdotal and not the main point of the research. We also don't know how many people actually had tinnitus in the first place.
This is true but you could require both drugs in both ears in order to eliminate tinnitus or reduce it. Which we won't know until both of these drugs are out.
I don't think Frequency Therapeutics gave any number regarding the percentage of tinnitus patients that experienced improvement. Their focus was on hearing restoration for those with mild to moderate hearing loss. I believe that the majority of people with mild to moderate hearing loss either don't have tinnitus or it is so light it isn't even thought about, so who knows how many of the study cohort have the buzz.
It has been mentioned in this forum several times that some people showed improvement of their tinnitus (people who were in the hearing loss trial, but also had tinnitus, the fact that some of them improved is what has made Frequency Therapeutics - if I recall correctly - take tinnitus into account for Phase 2 or 3).
Patients with "bothersome" tinnitus was an exclusion factor for OTO-413 Phase 1/2. So if they did have it, it would be so mild they may not show significant improvement anyway. Also, no tinnitus measurement (TFI) was used in this trial.
The only thing that Frequency Therapeutics said is that they had anecdotal evidence that it helps tinnitus, enough to add it to their exploratory measures.
Otonomy may have put themselves in a cannibalization scenario with OTO-313 for tinnitus. If it turns out OTO-413 treats tinnitus as a symptom of synaptopathy; it reduces the need for a OTO-313 which might be a problem.
Member
