It was a matter of time when hearing aid or cochlear implant companies decide to invest in promising pharmaceutical companies on developing a drug that can either prevent further hearing loss or restore it.
One intriguing possibility for the future is the convergence of future drugs and devices. Hearing aid manufacturers have certainly not been deaf to the noises from the pharma sector.
Sonova, the world's largest maker of hearing aids, has invested in two start-up companies - one in the United States for drugs to protect hearing and another Swiss biotech working on a treatment for acute tinnitus.
It bought U.S. cochlear implant manufacturer Advanced Bionics in 2009 in a bid to increase its focus on the inner ear and understand how drug treatments could work with implants.
"It will be interesting whether the innovation will be driven by pharma companies moving in or whether the hearing aid companies will branch out," said Auris' Meyer.
More and more investors are paying more attention to pharmaceuticals or biotech firms who look promising on developing drugs that target the cochlea on the restoration or improvement of hearing loss.
U.S. giant Pfizer is arguably the most advanced of the big players, with a drug in initial Phase I clinical testing trial for age-related sensorineural hearing loss that looks to enhance the function of existing hair cells.
Some of its biggest rivals are laying bets, too. Last year French drugmaker Sanofi inked a two-year research deal with privately held Dutch biotech firm Audion Therapeutics to develop small molecule drugs to improve hearing.
In October, Roche joined forces with venture capital firm Versant Ventures and biotech Inception Sciences to find molecules targeting ear hair cell protection and regeneration in the cochlea, the spiral-shaped cavity in the inner ear.
Cross-town competitor Novartis, meanwhile, struck a 2010 deal potentially worth more than $213 million with U.S. biotech GenVec to develop gene-based treatments to replace hair cells in the ear that transmit sound.
"We're looking at restoration as our main line of work and we're interested in whether there are chemicals that might also play this role instead of having to introduce a gene," said Novartis research head Mark Fishman.
The question why are they investing time, resources and money for a drug that could revolutionize regenerative medicine in the field of sensorineural hearing loss? The answer is simple. The returns on their investment would be huge.
But the science is developing and investor interest is growing, piqued by the huge commercial success of recent new treatments for sight loss, such as Lucentis from Novartis and Roche and Eylea from Regeneron and Bayer.
British charity Action on Hearing Loss conservatively puts the potential Western market for new drugs at $4.6 billion a year - a figure that could grow quickly as ageing populations swell the ranks of those with hearing problems.
With each progressive successes such as
restoring some of the hearing loss in gerbils will only embolden and encourage investors to help speed up the search for a regenerative medicine for the restoration of hearing loss. It would only be a matter of time in several years time rather than decades until success in the field of regenerative medicine on sensorineural hearing loss would be realized and capitalized. In the inexorable march towards on the cure for sensorineural hearing loss will continue to march forward and unabated. The writing is on the wall.
