5 reasons why I think Denmark is the #1 location for hearing health

Hearing loss is an overlooked medical area and billion dollar global market with a massive need for new and innovative solutions. Hearing loss is affecting 15% of the adult population, and actually affects 1 in 4 above the age 45 yet very few treatment options (aside from hearing aids) exist. The direct effect of hearing loss is obvious, but indirect effects such as increased social isolation, loneliness and depression are less known, yet have a major impact on individual productivity and quality of life. Hearing loss affects the individual but is in truth a global problem. In fact, more people are affected by hearing loss than diabetes, epilepsy, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease combined. 

The 5 reasons why Denmark is the #1 location for hearing health

1. Denmark is a global hotspot for hearing health with an estimated fifty percent of the worlds hearing aids being produced by Danish owned companies [1].
2. Europe’s most concentrated life science ecosystem in and around Medicon Valley with >1500 companies and >45,000 people working in private life science companies [2]. All within 1 hour distance from Copenhagen Airport.
3. Publishing the best research in Europe, and #2 in the world, only surpassed by MIT [3].
4. Access to top universities including the most innovative in the Nordics and #8 in Europe [4].
5. The easiest place in Europe to do Business, and #4 in the world [5].

If you want to learn more about Medicon Valley, the opportunities here and whether this is the right place for you reach out to me to learn more about what we at Copenhagen Capacity can do for you. Our services are free of charge and fully confidential - what's not to like.

Want to know more?

If you want to dive deeper into what causes hearing loss, why it is a global problem and what could help help develop future solutions for hearing loss read on.

Deep dive reading below | ---> Warning, lots of text and sciency stuff....

What causes hearing loss and why is it a global problem?

There are many causes of hearing loss. Exposure to loud sounds is well know and according to the WHO more than one billion young people risk developing permanent hearing loss due to the way they listen to music mostly on mobile devices. This represents a historic change in the sphere where hearing damage occurs. Historically, workplace related noise exposure was the main culprit, but this has been solved using different forms of hearing protection and a focus on HSE (although not everywhere in the world). This represents a historic change in the sphere where hearing damage occurs: from the workplace to the private sphere. This necessitates rethinking prevention completely. The need for new and innovative solutions and preventive actions in relation to hearing health is enormous.

“Over one billion young people face the risk of developing permanent hearing loss due to the way they listen to music;…” - WHO [6]

Poor hearing has the obvious effect of not hearing what is going on in your surroundings. What is less obvious as that hearing loss is associated with cognitive impairment and decline, and signiticant research goes into understanding the link, ”mechanism of interaction” if you will, between hearing loss, cognitive impairment, depression and isolation.

"This represents a historic change in the sphere where hearing damage occurs: from the workplace to the private sphere. This necessitates rethinking prevention completely."

What is less known is that hearing loss is a complication of chronic diabetes, and illnesses that cause high fever (e.g. meningitis). What many do not know is that hearing loss is side effect of many drugs - called ototoxicity. There are more than 300 ototoxic (causing hearing damage) drugs on the market covering different drug types such as antibiotics, diuretics for chronic kidney disease or chemotherapeutics.

Hearing loss is underrepresented in global clinical development

The number of clinical trials involving hearing loss is very limited. Few medications for treatment of hearing loss and diseases related to hearing exist and a likely reason is that a core endpoint used in clinical development is needs an update: the tradtional hearing test. Other and newer methods could perhaps help bring new treatments to the market thus helping an underserved patient population. With Denmarks strong position in clinical trials through Trial Nation we have the support infrastructure in place to help facilitate change this.

Early diagnosis and better clinical endpoints could increase developmental success of new drugs targeted hearing loss

An early diagnosis of hearing loss is likely to have a possitive impact with regards to management of diseases such as depression, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, dementia and Alzherimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and not to forgot the multitude of ototoxic drugs where high quality endpoints and biomarkers would have a massive impact.

There are no ready-to-use clinical endpoints for assessing hearing function which means that unwanted hearing related side effects are less likely to be detected. Similarly, objective diagnostics measures could help the development of new treatments for hearing loss and related diseases.

Two biomarkers used in otology are auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE). These two biomarkers are used in the evaluation and characterisation of auditory functions. Such methods are well established in preclinical studies and, if transferred to clinical research, this would add significant value to the data generated hopefully resulting in more products making it to the market. This is a an area where CILcare has special competencies and wishes to engage with the local life science ecosystem of Medicon Valley.

Some of the players in hearing health you find in the region include the hearing aid companies Demant, GN Hearing, WS Audiology; Hoba Therapeutics working on novel drug treatment options for hearing loss and CILCare a uniquely specialised preclinical CRO with noteworthy competencies in hearing loss and hearing health.

Want to learn more about Medicon Valley? Get in touch to learn how we at Copenhagen Capacity can help you. Our services are free of charge and fully confidential - what's not to like.

References

[1]: https://www.regioner.dk/media/3759/270916-startwithdenmark2016-fullreport.pdf

[2]: https://mediconvalley.greatercph.com/about-medicon-valley

[3]: https://worldresearchranking.com/

[4]: https://www.reuters.com/innovative-universities-2019

[5]: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings

[6]: https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/96/3/18-209767/en/