Decibel Therapeutics

Sound Pharmaceuticals is even closer, though it'd be more beneficial for hyperacusis than tinnitus.

 

I recently read the book "volume control" by David Owen, and the whole book was like "this is the best time in history to have hearing problems, there are so many options, cochlear implants, hearing aids, lipreading courses, brainstem implants blah blah blah"...

And 20 pages on he will be like "well, cochlear implants cannot really make isolated words really discernible", "hearing aids barely work in most situation, people use them for a week and then put it in a drawer" and so on...

The bottom line is there's nothing yet to cure sensorineural hearing loss, and people cope the best they can, making do without all that useless "technology".

The only advancement has really derived from patients' complaints, although ENTs want to credit themselves with this "great discovery": the reality of hidden hearing loss, basically people with decent audiograms that hear like shit and cannot understand speech in noise at all.

 

Many people from within the traditional ENT space aren’t exactly happy with what some of these firms working on restorative medicine are doing because they are apparently stepping on them and working on things that they haven’t been able to do.

One example was that bizarre article about Frequency Therapeutics and FX-322 which came out of the blue that wanted to criticise it. In the article they actually interview some experts in this field who put forward opinions on it, including one from a board of Decibel Therapeutics too. This guy made some rather ridiculous and spurious claims about FX-322 which consequently ignored what had been done and also actually contradicted the science.

 

Frequency Therapeutics and Sound Pharmaceuticals are ahead, although I’d suggest that if Otonomy are successful with OTO-413 then they too will not be far behind. Basically I think that these three firms are after delivering treatments as quickly as they can and want to deliver benefit as fast as they can.

 

This was posted yesterday (November 2).

Decibel Therapeutics Announces Exclusive Licensing Agreements for Hearing Loss Gene Therapy Technology

https://www.decibeltx.com/decibel-t...nts-for-hearing-loss-gene-therapy-technology/

 

Good news! It's great to see technology improving.

 

Another day, and one more company closer to a cure. It's getting brighter every day.

 

Is anyone aware if this would help with hair cells lost/damaged due to ototoxic medication?

 

AAV therapies in general might one day but this particular drug is for genetic hearing loss due to a deficiency in Otoferlin and isn't a regeneration therapy.

 

This is actually similar stuff to what Akouos is doing, isn’t it?

I was also wondering why a lot of these hearing related pharmaceutical organisations are based in Boston (as a non American I am interested)?

 

It is similar to Akouos, yes.

There are a few biotech hubs around the country (centered around high research university presence because that's where the initial research comes from) and Boston is one of the top hubs.

 

Many of them are the result research conducted by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both located in Cambridge, Massachusetts (adjacent to Boston) so Boston is a natural place for the organizations to be located.

This link, for example, shows many of the start-up organizations related to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute - Frequency Therapeutics and Decibel Therapeutics among them:

https://hsci.harvard.edu/startups

 

Exactly... Massachusetts and its universities, MIT and Harvard and affiliated hospitals is where a lot of research and magic starts. Politics does affect this as many of the PhD and researchers are from foreign countries. I am concerned and saddened by my nation's anti science and foreign sentiment... Harvard's wealth is on par with a small developing nation.

I forgot to say hi, big hug to my friend FGG!

@tommyd87, hi, I grew up in Boston. The city is basically built around universities, hospitals, and their spin off companies. I am super proud of that, orrather, I like that about my city very much. You've got to see it to believe it. It's amazing. Hope you can visit one day.

Daniel

 

Decibel scores $82M to push hearing loss gene therapy into the clinic

 

Looks good. I hope they are successful just like I hope FX-322 is successful for issues it is able to treat.

 

They got Fast Track designation for their anti ototoxicity treatment. This will help people under cancer therapies preserve hearing.

 

Great news. I have always thought about children who receive Cisplatin and become deaf along with tinnitus.

Probably the worst thing that can happen to a child.

 

Decibel Therapeutics has filed for a $75 million IPO.

Hearing disorder biotech Decibel Therapeutics files for a $75 million IPO

 

IPO date is set for 2/12/21 at initial share price between $16 to $18.

Right now, the only drug in clinical is a preventative for chemo related hearing loss but they do have quite a few drugs in pre-clinical including 3 genetic deafness drugs, vestibular hair cell growth drugs.

It seems like the publicly traded companies move much faster in terms of development.

 

Of course they do. The have shareholders and a board of directors to push them to get shit done.

 

This appears to be the research that they've collaborating on:

http://lab.rockefeller.edu/hudspeth/research/TRULI

Looks very promising. Decibel Therapeutics' website still says they're in "discovery". According to the page's CSS, the status bar is at 80% for that category. I emailed their Investor Relations to see if that meant they were close to preclinical, but they said no:

The status bars that you are referring to are not meant to be indicative of the program targets’ timeline, they are set to the ~80% by default. They are just visual aids to show what stage each candidate is in, i.e. discovery, preclinical, phase 1, etc.​

Though that doesn't appear to be true for the other stages (which aren't all set at 80%).

I'm very curious if they've made any progress. They teamed up with Rockefeller a little over a year ago. Also, just going back to the research real quick, this jumped out at me:

...yields supporting cells capable of transdifferentiation. Upon withdrawal of the compound, some supporting cells move their nuclei into the hair-cell layer and express genes characteristic of hair cells.​

So it sounds like they can create new support cells. I wonder if their compound would work well with what Pipeline Therapeutics is working on? It could possibly also amplify FX-322 (if it actually works), though I'm not sure what would happen if you had too many support cells. So now I'm left wondering: is Decibel Therapeutics trying to create a drug to work with these new support cells, and have they considered teaming up with an existing company that has a drug that can work with these cells?

 

Woah, this can make support cells?

 

That was my thought too, this could be a game changer that's flying under the radar, especially if they decide to partner with another company. They seem to be friendly with Frequency Therapeutics on Twitter, but that may just be a frenemy thing, and not a lot of these hearing companies are on Twitter so it may be meaningless.

I emailed their IR a few more questions, I'll post back if I get a reply.

 

Damn, if support cells can be regrown this may help those who suffer from severe hearing loss that may have little to no support cells. This is a game changer.

 

Wake me up in 500 years when there is a cure.

 

There's a huge amount of potential if true. Please report back if/when they get back to you.

 

Do you know what the target cell type is? Because if it's support cells, it just means some would divide and transdifferiate into hair cells. So it would be more similar to what Frequency Therapeutics is doing and not necessarily an adjunctive treatment. IE you still need support cells to start.

Now, if it's fibroblasts, for instance, that changes things...

 

Imagine unlimited fresh support cells and hair cells. Straight heaven.