Benzinga | Apr 28, 2021 08:00AM EDT

Otonomy, AGTC To Present Preclinical Proof-Of-Concept Results For OTO-825 Gene Therapy At ASGCT Annual Meeting

Otonomy, Inc. (NASDAQ:OTIC), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapeutics for neurotology, today announced the upcoming presentation of preclinical proof-of-concept data for OTO-825 at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Annual Meeting on May 13, 2021. OTO-825 is the clinical candidate targeting the gap junction beta-2 (GJB2) gene developed under the company's collaboration with Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:AGTC). Mutations in the GJB2 gene are the most common cause of congenital hearing loss and typically result in moderate to severe hearing impairment.



"We are excited to present these preclinical results for OTO-825 that build on our previous presentations demonstrating gene expression in support cells of the cochlear, which are the target cells for GJB2 gene therapy, using novel AAV vectors identified through our collaboration with AGTC," said Alan C. Foster, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Otonomy. "Based on these encouraging results that demonstrate hearing recovery and improved cochlear morphology following OTO-825 administration, the companies have initiated IND-enabling activities and look forward to providing additional details of the program in the next several months."

The oral presentation entitled "AAV-mediated GJB2 gene therapy rescues hearing loss and cochlear damage in a mouse model of congenital hearing loss caused by conditional Connexin26 knockout" by Mathur et al., will be presented on May 13 at 6:30 p.m. EDT.