SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Sound Pharmaceuticals, a Seattle-based biotech firm, announced this week that it has been awarded up to $1.6M from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc. (CFFT), a non-profit drug discovery and development affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The CFFT award will support the initial testing of SPI-1005 in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) that are receiving tobramycin for the treatment of acute pulmonary exacerbation or lung infection. Tobramycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic, a class of antibiotics known to be ototoxic, which includes side effects such as hearing loss and tinnitus.
The company’s novel oral drug, SPI-1005, is currently being developed to reduce the incidence and severity of sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus related to ototoxicity, noise and Meniere’s disease.
Ototoxcity Clinical Trials
The STOP Ototoxicity study, led by Patrick Flume, MD, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at MUSC in Charleston, will enroll a total of 100 subjects at several sites across the US. The Phase 1b STOP Ototoxicity clinical trial will examine the incidence and severity of hearing loss, tinnitus, dizziness or vertigo due to IV-administered tobramycin treatment.
CF patients are especially vulnerable to ototoxicity, due to the frequently repeated treatment courses of aminoglycoside antibiotics, and often beginning at a young age.
“This is the first comprehensive US study of ototoxicity in the CF population and we are pleased to be leading it.” –Patrick Flume, MD
Currently, there are no FDA approved drugs to treat or prevent sensorineural hearing loss or tinnitus.
Source: Sound Pharmaceuticals
