Frequency Therapeutics — Hearing Loss Regeneration

https://www.frequencytx.com/

I wanted to start a new thread on this company. They made some great claims approx 6 months ago and have recently updated their website. I wanted to open up a thread on any information or even speculation as to what they are doing.

They made this claim:

Frequency will use a clinically established procedure to inject small molecules in a slow-release gel into the middle ear during a three minute office procedure. Intra-tympanic injections are widely used for steroids in a high volume ENT procedure under an existing CPT code.​

I found it interesting because doesn't this usually involve drilling a hole in the cochlea which is the hardest bone in the body? This doesn't seem to go along with that.

Also does anyone know if they will be starting clinical trials? Or maybe they have something that will bypass that. We all know anything going to a clinical trial is many, many years away. Their website seems like there might be something good happening in the near future.

If they have something I think this would be a much better alternative to travelling out of the country.

 

Middle ear, not inner ear. The middle ear is the space between the ear drum and the cochlea.

 

No, there is no drilling of a hole in the cochlea to put a gel in the middle ear.
Now, if you were undergoing a stapedotomy (like me), then yes, you would have a whole in your cochlea, and a piston (prosthesis) in there too.

 

So the gel makes it from the middle ear into the cochlea then?

I am considering emailing them to see how far away they think they are and maybe seeing if they will sign me up for a clinical trial if the procedure is promising.

 

Yes this would be a very good idea, is it based on stem cells?

Would this also help tinnitus?

 

Has anybody emailed them seeking treatment? Do they offer any treatments to people in North America?

 

Yes.

 

They don't do that for now. Still at the experimental stage on animals.

 

That's probably the same or similar technique described in the video below;

Induced Cochlear Hair Cell Regeneration &...

which i believe is one of the most promising cures.

 

Are all these treatments stuck behind "red tape"? I mean, what do you think the chances of this treatment making things worse are? Why can't we just try the gel. I understand that for them to claim the efficacy without studies or advertise it would be wrong, but couldnt they send it out to people as an experimental health product, just to see if humans can benefit from it? I guess we might need it applied by a proffesional, and maybe the ear canal would need irrigation at some point after the applications?

 

Article on Frequency Therapeutics:

https://endpts.com/another-langer-b...ims-for-the-clinic-with-hearing-loss-therapy/

 

That's sounds pretty exciting to me!Trials in as little as 18 months?There really must be a race going on to cure hearing loss.

 

I like the headline
"Another Langer-backed biotech breaks out of stealth mode, aims for the clinic with hearing loss therapy"
I do hope other companies are also in "stealth mode".
It could make sense.

 

Another article about Frequency, published January 5th, 2017.
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2017/...langer-aims-to-fight-hearing-loss-with-drugs/

 

For people with a LinkedIn account, you can follow Frequency Therapeutics here:

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/15235347/

 

We are still in for a long battle. In 18 months they start. 3 trials? Each at 18 months. By the time they get halfway through they will have more information possibly to start another trial. So we might have something in 10 years? maybe? or at least another trial started.

I guess I was hoping they had something that wouldn't require trials, but that is wishful thinking.

I don't think stem cells require clinical trials so that may be the answer that we are looking for. I just hope its a facility in the US that offers the service and that I don't have to go out of the country to get it done.

 

Hard to know but I wouldn't imagine it being 10 years away,there's an itch between competitors to get there first so I would see it coming a lot sooner than that.The first company isn't going to wait 10 years if the competitor can get it out there in 5 if you get me,if that's the case then they'll have the monopoly over everyone else if it's effective and the competitors efforts are all but down the drain as a result.

But I'm only speculating,for all I know it could happen in 40 years time,it's nearly impossible to know but this competition has seemed to somewhat light a fire under everyone's ass.

 

http://medcitynews.com/2017/01/biotech-startups-hearing-loss/

 

Not in the clinic till late 2018? That still sounds way more optimistic than we are expecting here. If thats true, treatments are really on the horizon. I love the optimism in this article.

 

Also,on a somewhat unrelated topic,today is the first time in my life that I sat down with three seperate newspapers and all three had a story about Stemcell treatments or Stemcell research.

I just found that weird?Irish newspapers usually consist of fashion/gangland murder/murder/more murder/politics/hospital waiting times/even more murder/rapist priests/rapist priests who murdered somebody/showbiz/drug hauls/a cow that has gone missing/missing cow has been found/missing cow turns to murder/gossip and of course,crosswords.

To see them talking about something as alien as Stemcell research did admittedly put a smile on my face.

 

Yes, indeed. I wish that was true today.

 

I'm hoping its quicker, but clinical trials take time. Isnt it 3 trials total. 1.5 years each. Assuming no break in-between thats still almost 5 years. Plus 18 months. So 6 years is the best case assuming there was a good outcome. In 6 years we will know more than we know now, so that may not be the best solution. The clinical trials would start again.....
40 years sounds more realistic than 5. It could take the next 40-100 to fully understand what is going on inside the ear though.

There is a big push to get something to the market and that leaves me hopeful. From reading their website I was hoping that they had something they could just begin administering tp patients and we could see what the outcomes are, but I guess they have to go the clinical trial route.

 

What treatment are they stating may come out in 2018? Are they saying that a drug that can return some hearing to those who have lost it? Or a prevention treatment?

 

Well, the sentence before the 2018 statement mentions a treatment to remedy hearing loss and that it may not reach clinic earlier than late 2018. Still doesn't say much, as that might be late 2018 or early 2036 for that matter. It is however a cautiously optimistic statement. The article states that the companies involved are "motivated" and hence working hard to get a treatment to market. This confirms my earlier thoughts that the race is on.

If a treatment indeed comes to market in 2018, do not expect it to be perfect. Probably it will offer modest improvements as it is a first try at an effective treatment, but these might be just enough for a lot of us here.

I would like to say to you that you (and we) live in an interesting time to have hearing loss if you have it. For decades there hasn't been so much activity and motivation in this field to get something useful out there.

 

So this drug will not help against tinnitus? Just asking because they don't talk about tinnitus

 

If the tinnitus is a consequence of hearing loss, and the hearing loss gets resolved (especially if it's cochlear synaptopathy and Liberman's theory is true about this being a cause for tinnitus), then maybe the tinnitus will resolve itself as well. That remains yet to be seen though.

 

It's all just a who the hell knows I guess,for all we know this treatment might cause pubic hairs to grow inside the cochlea and not haircells like intended and that would set us back another 1000 years judging by how these things go,great for baulding penises but useless for T

Time will tell,just how much time is the problem.

 

That's a big assumption indeed, but it is rooted in the correlation witnessed between hearing loss and tinnitus, so it does have some legitimacy. There would be some logical explanation if it worked.
Still, we won't know until we try - there's always surprises.

 

It's the clinical trial that will start in 2018. If that's the case you might participate in the phase II trial and therefore recieve the drug in 2020. But I'd say you don't have enough hearing kiss to participate.....

 

If your tinnitus is caused by hearing and loss and this doesn't correct your tinnitus, it is highly likely that it will make it so it doesn't get worse.