Eli Lilly says its potential gene therapy ‘restored hearing’ in 11-year-old boy

An 11-year-old boy who re­ceived Eli Lil­ly’s ex­per­i­men­tal gene ther­a­py for hear­ing loss last Oc­to­ber showed signs of re­stored hear­ing 30 days af­ter treat­ment, the phar­ma gi­ant an­nounced on Tues­day.

The ther­a­py, dubbed AK-OTOF, is de­signed to de­liv­er a func­tion­al copy of a gene called otofer­lin. With­out otofer­lin, au­di­to­ry sig­nals re­ceived by the ear aren’t trans­mit­ted to the brain. Lil­ly es­ti­mates that 200,000 peo­ple world­wide ex­pe­ri­ence hear­ing loss caused by mu­ta­tions to otofer­lin.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.