Audion Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company dedicated to the development of therapies to treat Hearing Loss
Hearing Loss
Acquired Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL), due to aging, exposure to noise or other environmental factors impacts hundreds of millions of people. According to the recently updated World Health Organization estimates, 1 in 4 people worldwide will have some degree of hearing loss by 2050. The growing prevalence of hearing loss is driven in large part by the global increase in ageing populations.
Disabling hearing loss has far-reaching consequences on people’s lives. Currently, there are no pharmaceutical products that can treat SNHL.The treatment of SNHL is limited to the use of hearing aids or cochlear implants. These prostheses do not treat the underlying physiological cause of the hearing impairment. Hearing aids perform poorly when a larger number of hair cells has been lost and in noisy environments. Understanding of speech in noise remains the major unmet medical need in people with SNHL.
Our Approach
Audion is pioneering the now broadly recognized approach of restoring the function of hearing through targeting a protein complex called gamma secretase. A short-term treatment with a small molecule gamma secretase inhibitor has the potential of restoration of hearing, also in longer established hearing loss.
Audion has completed early clinical studies with its lead product candidate in patients with sensorineural hearing loss, demonstrating safety and initial indications of efficacy on various hearing tests in multiple patients.
Image: Cochlear sensory epithelium.