Hearing News Watch

HAVANA, CUBA — The U.S. State Department recently expelled two Cuban diplomats in May, after several Americans at the US Embassy in Havana began suffering from unexplained medical symptoms late last year. According to a report from The Washington Post, a small number of Americans began reporting symptoms in the fall of 2016 and some of them were either removed

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA — Starkey Hearing Technologies announced the appointment this week of Achin Bhowmik, PhD, as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Vice President of Engineering. In this new role, Dr. Bhowmik will be responsible for leading Starkey’s research and engineering efforts. Dr. Bhowmik is a well known authority in technology, with years of advanced research and product

WASHINGTON, DC — Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), along with Representatives Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) applauded the passage of the Over-the-Counter (OTC) Hearing Aid Act as part of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Reauthorization Act last week. The bill passed

WASHINGTON, DC — The US Senate passed the FDA Reauthorization Act today. The legislation, as reported previously, contains a provision that directs the FDA to develop a category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. A House version of the bill was passed last month. The OTC provision of the legislation would allow for

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA — Late last week, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper signed a bill into law that allows people that are deaf and hard of hearing to have a symbol placed on their driver’s license that designates their hearing challenges. The bill, which unanimously passed both the state House and Senate, would allow for a special voluntary numeric and

MILAN, ITALY — The world’s largest hearing aid retailer Amplifon SpA doesn’t plan to step aside while hearing aid manufacturers continue to acquire retailers across the globe. In a July 28 interview by Reuters, the company’s CEO says that Amplifon is ready to make “major acquisitions” in order to bolster the company’s position as the number 1 global retailer of

Editor’s Note: On August 3, 2017, the US Senate passed the Over the Counter Act of 2017. The legislation, having already passed in the House, will now head to the president’s desk to be signed into law.   In November 2016, citing recommendations from the groundbreaking PCAST and NAS reports on hearing aid accessibility and affordability, US Senators Elizabeth Warren and

If you’re a newly minted Doctor of Audiology, chances are good that by the end of your career you will see a near doubling of the number of people with hearing loss in the United States. Fueled mainly by a steady shift toward older adults, a recent report in JAMA-Otolaryngology, indicated that by 2060 more than 73 million Americans will

ZUG, SWITZERLAND — Biopharmaceutical company Auris Medical Holdings announced today that it has completed the acquisition of assets related to intranasal betahistine from Otifex Therapeutics Ltd. The assets acquired by Auris Medical, including preclinical and clinical data, as well as intellectual property rights, have been fully transferred to Auris Medical according to the announcement. Together the assets form the foundation for further development of

Researchers at Duke University and Nottingham University in the UK issued a comprehensive report summarizing the “growing, and alarmingly high” burden of hearing loss around the world. The report, written by Blake Wilson, Debara Tucci, Michael Merson and Gerard O”Donahue was published in the Lancet on July 10. The Lancet article reviewed the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD)