Hearing Loss
Recent clinical, regulatory, research and industry developments relating to this disease.
High-resolution prosthetic hearing with a soft auditory brainstem implant in macaques.
What's happening now
An analyst briefing on current research, clinical, regulatory and industry activity surrounding this disease.
- 3 clinical trials expected to report results, the earliest in Q4 2027.
- 1 industry development reported.
- Q4 2027Double-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled Phase 1/2a Study of Safety, Tolerability and PK of Single and Repeated SC Doses of DX243 in Healthy Volunteers, and 1-month Safety and Efficacy in Moderately Severe Age-related Hearing Loss
- Q3 2028Phase II Interventional Study Using Atorvastatin to Reduce Cisplatin-Induced Hearing Loss Among Individuals With Head and Neck Cancer
- Q1 2030Transtympanic Sodium Thiosulfate to Prevent Cisplatin-related Hearing Loss A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Phase III Trial; The SOUND Trial
Clinical MilestonesViewHide
- 2026-06-10Double-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled Phase 1/2a Study of Safety, Tolerability and PK of Single and Repeated SC Doses of DX243 in Healthy Volunteers, and 1-month Safety and Efficacy in Moderately Severe Age-related Hearing LossResults expected Q4 2027
- 2026-06-05Phase II Interventional Study Using Atorvastatin to Reduce Cisplatin-Induced Hearing Loss Among Individuals With Head and Neck CancerResults expected Q3 2028
- 2025-12-15Transtympanic Sodium Thiosulfate to Prevent Cisplatin-related Hearing Loss A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Phase III Trial; The SOUND TrialResults expected Q1 2030
Industry & MarketViewHide
- 2026-06-10Sensorion selects SENS-601 as lead program for hearing lossIndustry · BioWorld Gene Therapy
- 2026-06-10IndustrySensorion selects SENS-601 as lead program for hearing lossIndustry · BioWorld Gene Therapy
- 2026-06-10ClinicalDouble-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled Phase 1/2a Study of Safety, Tolerability and PK of Single and Repeated SC Doses of DX243 in Healthy Volunteers, and 1-month Safety and Efficacy in Moderately Severe Age-related Hearing LossResults expected Q4 2027
- 2026-06-05ClinicalPhase II Interventional Study Using Atorvastatin to Reduce Cisplatin-Induced Hearing Loss Among Individuals With Head and Neck CancerResults expected Q3 2028
- 2026-06-01ClinicalA Phase 2b, Randomized, Double-blinded, Placebo-controlled Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of SPI-1005 to Prevent Acute Noise Induced Hearing Loss (PANIHL)Withdrawn
- 2026-06-01ClinicalSafety and Efficacy Study of SPI-1005 for Prevention of Chemotherapy Induced Hearing LossWithdrawn
- 2025-12-15ClinicalTranstympanic Sodium Thiosulfate to Prevent Cisplatin-related Hearing Loss A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Phase III Trial; The SOUND TrialResults expected Q1 2030
Clinical trials
The current development programme across all trial phases.
Research activity
Key research shaping understanding of this disease, combining the latest publications with the most influential evidence.
Major themes8
- Hearing Loss3
- Auditory Brain Stem Implants1
- Auditory Cortex1
- Auditory Perception1
- Cerebral Cortex1
- Cochlear Nucleus1
- Dependovirus1
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 21
Leading journals6
- Ageing research reviews1
- Blood1
- Nature biomedical engineering1
- PloS one1
- Progress in neurobiology1
- Science translational medicine1
Leading researchers8
- Adenis V1
- Anschuetz L1
- Armstrong AM1
- Baeg E1
- Bishop RJ1
- Bloch J1
- Brewer CC1
- Brieger K1
Affiliations (unnormalised)6
- Eaton-Peabody Laboratory2
- Harvard Medical School2
- Bouvé College of Health Sciences1
- City University of Hong Kong1
- Defitech Center for Interventional Neurotherapies1
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience1
Disease profile
A grounded synthesis of the condition — overview, causes, mechanism, risk factors and current standard of care.
Hearing loss is a general term for partial or complete loss of the ability to hear in one or both ears. The supplied material focuses on sensorineural hearing loss as a common form discussed in relation to ageing and diabetes.
The grounding supports diabetes as an associated condition, with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes reported in association with hearing loss. However, it also states that a causal link has been difficult to establish, so the supplied material does not support a definitive aetiology beyond this association.
The supplied material does not provide a specific biological mechanism for hearing loss itself. It notes that reactive oxygen species can cause non-specific damage to proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids at high concentrations and regulate signalling at lower concentrations, but it does not explicitly connect this mechanism to hearing loss in the provided abstracts.
Ageing is identified as a common context for sensorineural hearing loss and diabetes. Diabetes is associated with a higher incidence of hearing loss, and prediabetes is also linked to increased hearing loss rates in the supplied review.
The supplied grounding only indicates that therapy is a covered aspect, but it does not describe specific treatment modalities or drug classes for hearing loss. No standard-of-care treatment can be stated from the provided material.
AI-generated summary grounded in MeSH and 2 peer-reviewed sources. Informational only — not medical advice. Generated 2026-07-07.
Reference
Authoritative identity, definition & identifiers.
A general term for the complete or partial loss of the ability to hear from one or both ears.
- Disease identity & definition — NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), public domain
- Clinical trials — ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
- Research activity — Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI) + OpenAlex-derived paper links
- Related entities are derived from literature co-mention (studied together) — associative, not causal.