The US biotech’s DB-OTO has made headlines worldwide after a baby with profound genetic deafness experienced improved hearing to normal levels within 24 weeks after a single intracochlear injection.

Hearing loss lacks pharmacological treatment options, with patients instead relying on medical devices or going untreated. In Vivo spoke to French biotech Sensorion, which is targeting a number of hearing loss indications with small-molecule drugs and gene therapies.

A very early success with a gene therapy for a rare form of deafness puts Regeneron ahead of Lilly and Sensorion.

The firms’ partnership goes back to pre-merger Celgene, and BMS still has Dragonfly candidates in its pipeline. Ji Xing gets hypertension candidate from Phase Bio.