AGTC and Otonomy Announce Strategic Collaboration to Develop and Commercialize Gene Therapy for Congenital Hearing Loss

UF startup Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC), a biotechnology company conducting human clinical trials of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies for the treatment of rare diseases, and Otonomy, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapeutics for neurotology, announced that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize an AAV-based gene therapy to restore hearing in patients with sensorineural hearing loss caused by a mutation in the gap junction protein beta 2 gene (GJB2)— the most common cause of congenital hearing loss.

Mutations in GJB2 account for approximately 30% of all genetic hearing loss cases. Patients with this mutation can have severe-to-profound deafness in both ears that is identified in screening tests routinely performed in newborns. Under the collaboration agreement, the parties will equally share the program costs and proceeds and can include additional genetic hearing loss targets in the future. 

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