Human trials of drug therapy for otology are few and far between. Whether it’s due to competing advances in amplification technology or the difficulty of determining a mechanism of action that could be consistently targeted by medications, pharmaceutical research has taken a back seat to hearing assistance devices.
Explore this issue:
June 2015But that’s all beginning to change.
In just the last year, several phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of drug therapy for tinnitus and hearing loss have started adding patients. In some of the studies, interim results suggest significant advances. Even gene therapy, long talked about in otology circles but mostly a cancer-focused affair, has been tried in a handful of patients.