When Hearing Aid Companies invest in Regenerative Medicine on Cure for Hearing Loss

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.

Stem cells for hearing loss gets closer

We're now at a point where researchers can take your own skin cells and convert them into  regenerative cells to help re-grow damaged hair cells within your own inner ear and restore hearing loss.  Clinical trials begin soon over the next 10 years. And believe me, this will come a lot sooner rather than later with the way medical researchers are advancing at a rapid rate to reach this unprecedented milestone.  Not only would this be hugely beneficial to recipients of hearing loss for millions of children and adults researchers also recognize the extremely lucrative potential when it comes to regenerative medicine.

The New Stem Cells Generation - going from deaf to hearing.

The stuff of science fiction has now arrived where Madeline becomes the first of many toddlers born deaf to get their first cord- blood stem cells treatments in the effort to restore their sensorineural hearing loss. This procedure continues to show success and Madeline's hearing continues to improve.

Madeline Cooper, who is nearly 2 years old, is the first person in the nation to take part in a new Food and Drug Administration-approved study of stem cell treatment of sensorineural hearing loss.

Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and California-based Cord Blood Registry will eventually enroll another nine children in this first phase of the study.

Unlike some advertised stem cell treatments that may cost patients tens of thousands of dollars — and, according to critics, are little more than quackery — the Conners paid nothing to take part and have been promised no specific results.

The process is simple: Doctors inject the children with stem cells from their own stored umbilical cords. Because it is the patients’ own blood, there is little chance the treatment will produce side effects.

In theory, the treatment will adjust patients’ immune systems to encourage their bodies to repair themselves. In truth, researchers have no idea if it will work.

Earlier Italian studies on mice concluded that stem cells may help the body repair damaged cells in the ear and restore some hearing in these types of cases, according to a 2008 published report in the University of South Florida journal Cell Transplantation.

Madeline's hearing loss has gone from extreme to moderate hearing loss since undergoing the treatment. A definite improvement. This stem cell treatment will continue and may take a few years to help fully restore hearing loss. We will not know how fast this rate of restoration will take place over the next several months to a few years. We will know more once the Cooper family head back to Texas in July, and again in January of 2013, to get a more detailed assessment of Madeline’s improvement.

This will be the start of a new generation of cord-blood stem cell babies and toddlers born deaf to become, in theory, hearing with the help of their own blood-cord stem cells. An exciting era in regenerative medicine for parents of deaf children. This new cord-blood stem cell procedure was covered in my blog piece in January 2012 for your review.

Once proved successful parents of deaf babies will see this as the preferred treatment to help restore their child's hearing loss. This will certainly be a much preferable route (and cheaper, too) than to choose cochlear implant.  Now the question becomes, will this eventually destroy the cochlear implant industry? Only time will tell.

Concerned Citizens for Disability Advocacy on Stem Cells for Deaf Babies

A blog called "Concerned Citizens for Disability Advocacy" (CCFDA) shared an opinion about the recent brouhaha by some Deaf people who are against stem cells experimentation in the field of regenerative medicine that could help babies with hearing loss. This blogger on CCFDA explained why he/she will not support such a petition that is against stem cells treatment for sensorineural hearing loss deaf babies.

After reading everything on this petition site Concerned Citizens For Disability Advocacy Blog will not and does not support this petition nor ever will and here is why.

This valuable Stem Cell Research could potentially help millions in the future. Why would anybody in their right mind want to stop research that could help others in the future unless they have some hidden agenda or selfish motives?

What next are these same people who are pushing this petition going to push for laws to take away these same types of children from their parents who are trying to help them or want to help them so others can be helped in return?

What a sad nation and a society we have become when the gift of helping others is being silenced if you will by this exclusive group pushing this petition.

It truly sickens me to no end.

Another blogger of In the Country of the Deaf, the Hearing Man is Culturally Deprived
had this to say:

A year ago I was reminded of this fact when I was trying to “help” people with hearing conditions and was set straight. Deafness is viewed as much a culture and identity to some as it is viewed a “handicap” to others. You can read the article from last year here: HEARING LOSS – GIFT OR A DISEASE?

I have the utmost respect for the culture and identity of the deaf and only want to “help” those who want to be “helped.” (Unfortunately, even words like “help” have huge implications…it seems almost every word I use is charged with the potential for offense.)
I do have one question which is spinning around in my brain at 2am while my tea grows cold and my back whispers conspiracies to my neck. This is not a challenge but merely an effort to know better and learn:

If the “with hearing” child of parents “with hearing” were to suddenly go deaf, the parents would probably do everything within their means to recover the child’s hearing.
If the deaf child of deaf parents were to suddenly gain audism, would the parents do everything within their means to remove the child’s hearing?

I would love to receive people’s reactions to this. Please fee free to comment below.

Healthfully – David

So far, there are a few deaf bloggers who have blogged about this potentially life-changing event.

Addressing deafness in the field of regenerative medicine

From the medical journal "The Development of a Stem Cell Therapy for Deafness":

Medicine is at the doorsteps of a phenomenal revolution, brought by the advances in the stem cell field and the development of new technologies to engineer cells and tissues into more complex organs. The promise of a true regenerative approach to organ damage and loss of function is closer than ever of becoming a reality. The auditory field is participating of these developments with high ­expectations. Since the cochlea is an organ of difficult access and with very limited regenerative capacity, conventional therapeutic approaches have failed and, currently, the only treatments available are in the form of hearing aids and cochlear implants. The potential restoration of hearing by the use of exogenous stem cells will offer a solution to a condition that has very limited options. In this chapter, we are reviewing the increasing volume of research on this emerging field and discussing the key elements that need to be developed further, in order to translate the basic science into a clinical reality.

Take a peak inside and read a few pages from the Regenerative Medicine journal on how far along stem cells are and how close the reality is on restoring hearing loss using stem cells.

Adult stem cells from adipose tissue accidentally improves hearing in one patient

Or so it seems if one read this recent medical article.

In May 2008, the patient was treated with two I.V. infusions of 28 million SVF cells and multiple intrathecal and intravenous infusions of allogeneic CD34+ and MSC cells. MSC were third party unmatched and CD34 were matched by mixed lymphocyte reaction. Infusions were performed within a 9-day period and were very well tolerated without any adverse or side effects. No other treatments were necessary during the patient's stay. After the second stem cell infusion the patient reported a significant decrease of his generalized pain. However, he continued to experience severe neck and shoulder pain and was re-evaluated by his neurologist. Two months after the stem cell therapy, the volume of his hearing aids had to be lowered once per week over 4 weeks. Three months after the stem cell infusions the patient reported a significant improvement of his cognition and almost complete reduction of the spasticity in his extremities. He mentioned that he has had 623 tonic seizures in the past and confirmed that he has not experienced any more seizures since the completion of the stem cell therapy. A neurological evaluation performed three months after the stem cell infusions revealed an intact cranial nerve (II-XII) function and no nystagmus, normal motor function without any atrophy or fasciculations, and intact sensory and cerebellar functions and mental status.

Avdism as a crutch excuse?

This "a-wordism" has lately become vulgarized through the repeated abuse of the word, marketing, and just plain ol' fashioned use of the internet to help spread the word. In the main heading of my blog I stated, "Don't use deafness as your crutch. We all face adversity in our life and don't let it become an obstacle but a challenge!" Yet it is true and a sad fact that people are discriminated for what they are and it shouldn't be like that. But that isn't justification to abuse this a-wordism by over-playing this particular discrimination card. Just like when people use the race card for every single supposed racist act when it never happened or existed a la Gates-Crowley Incident. People on both end purposely practice discrimination. Yes, even Deaf people against hearing people, even discriminate against those who prefer to talk despite their deafness. The horrors!

Maybe the answer to this a-wordism will either be that technology becomes so great and prevalent and accessible to all will ensure that this a-wordism wouldn't be an issue since techology would become that great 'equalizer.'

Or perhaps more likely that biotechnology would come early and a cure for hearing loss is made real where all babies born deaf will become hearing through the help of stem cells, thus the decline of Deaf culture and community would occur through attrition in the next 100 years. Some say this cure for babies born deaf won't happen in our lifetime or that it won't happen so "soon" in 10, 20 or 30 years. Or some simply believe it'll never happen and it'll be impossible for the biomedical technology to come up with a cure for hearing loss. Oh, wait, I think the cure for babies born deaf or acquired hearing loss very early on is already beginning in clinical studies this year.

The CBR Center for Regenerative Medicine is collaborating with two leading medical institutions to initiate a research study that would evaluate using a child's own cord blood stem cells to help restore or improve hearing that's been damaged from injury or sickness.

Specifically, we are looking for children under the age of 18 months whose own cord blood is stored at CBR and who have sustained hearing damage...

Regardless, this a-wordism may eventually go away either wholly or to some extent. Just a matter of time. But for the time being, do not use it as crutch and an excuse for your deafness. Certainly we have really dumb hearing people who don't know better but ignorance is not the same thing as accusing them with the a-wordism. Educate them instead.