Auris Medical forms drug discovery collaboration with King’s College London, UK

Professor David E. Thurston of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science will lead a team at King’s to develop and optimize a range of specific small molecules for Auris Medical’s AM-102 project.

The AM-102 compounds bind to a novel, undisclosed drug target for treating certain types of tinnitus. The collaboration project draws on earlier work performed for Auris Medical by the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King’s under the leadership of Professor Patrick Doherty and Dr Gareth Williams.

Auris Medical founder, chairman and CEO Thomas Meyer said: "We are very excited to continue and expand the collaboration for our AM-102 project with King’s College London.

"Drawing on our research partners’ unique experience and great skills in drug discovery, we expect the collaboration to take us one important further step forward towards the development of a potent second generation tinnitus treatment."

From the research project Auris Medical aims to select a lead compound for further preclinical and subsequent clinical development. The drug target for AM-102 was identified and validated previously through a collaboration with another leading research institution. It is different from the drug target for AM-101, Auris Medical’s late-stage investigational tinnitus treatment.

King’s College London head of the institute of pharmaceutical science Peter Hylands said: "This latest of a series of commercial collaborations demonstrates the breadth and depth of our research capability and the great demand for our expertise in discovery and development".

About inner ear tinnitus

Tinnitus, the perception of sound without external acoustic stimulation, is a symptom common to various ear or other diseases. Inner ear tinnitus may be provoked by various injuries to the cochlea, the organ of hearing, such as overexposure to noise or inflammation. It may be short and just transitory; however, it may also become permanent.

Tinnitus of less than three months of duration is considered acute, while older tinnitus is considered chronic.

Inner ear tinnitus may be only a slight nuisance, but often it has a serious impact on the ability to sleep, relax, or concentrate, or it may lead to tiredness, irritation, nervousness, despair, frustration, or even depression.

As of today, there exists neither a universal standard of care for acute inner ear tinnitus, nor a truly proven, effective treatment method.