FX-322

Frequency Therapeutics (Nasdaq:FREQ) shares were down more than 80% on Monday afternoon after the company announced the failure of the Phase 2b study for FX-322, its lead candidate drug for hearing loss. As a result, the Lexington, Massachusetts-based biotech company will discontinue its hearing loss program and cut its workforce by 55%.

It says its cost savings measures will extend its runway into 2025.

In late 2022, Otonomy, another neurotology biopharma once listed on Nasdaq, said it had decided to dissolve its business and liquidate its assets.

FX-322 had no statistically significant difference over placebo

Frequency Therapeutics said the Phase 2b study showed that the drug FX-322 did not improve speech perception more than placebo. The company will also discontinue its second program for sudden or noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss, FX-345.

FX-322 did not meet its primary endpoint or any of the study’s secondary endpoints. The saf…

Decibel Therapeutics (NSDQ:DBTX) has a working hypothesis that molecular characterization of the cell biology of the inner ear could pave the way for treatments for hearing and balance disorders. 

The Boston-based biotech company has announced that a recent study published in Cell Reports supports that hypothesis. 

“We were thrilled to leverage our data and expertise in inner ear biology to help fuel this analysis, which may help enable identification of therapeutics that counter the observed trends in gene expression that occur following noise exposure,” said Joe Burns, vice president, discovery at Decibel Therapeutics, in a statement. 

The company partnered with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Karolinska Institute on the research.

Decibel Therapeutics had its IPO on February 12. Its shares have since fallen from $18.03 apiece to $7.71 today.

Lexington, Massachusetts–based Frequency Therapeutics has also seen its stoc…