Keep Climbing: It’s Only Insurmountable Until You Reach the Other Side

I remember standing at High Camp 17,200 feet up on Denali, gazing down over a breathtaking view and looking up toward our journey’s end only 3,000 feet away. The year was 1994 and I was with a team from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Our goal was to get the first NOLS group on top of North America’s tallest mountain in years. The only thing that could keep us from getting there would be weather. And winds that day were in excess of 70 mph.

I know what it feels like to face what feels like insurmountable headwinds at the end of a hard-fought journey. Growing up with dyslexia, people told me every day what I can and can’t do. And as a biotech CEO working to develop the first therapeutic for hearing loss, I face similar skepticism, usually in the form of “but it’s never been done before.” What sees me through is a deep sense of personal resilience and an equally deep belief in the power of science. Armed with these, I have come to learn that headwinds are only insurmountable until you reach the other side.

Now we find ourselves entering a new year faced with another powerful headwind, just as we were closing in on what felt like the end of another long, hard-fought climb. The mountain this time is COVID-19, the headwind is Omicron. But I have reason for optimism. I have watched as our collective resilience has kept us going through the pandemic. And I have seen how the power of science, largely through new mRNA technology, has made Omicron far less threatening than it might otherwise have been.

I feel a similar optimism for the millions of people suffering from hearing loss.

While neither infectious or deadly, hearing loss is its own kind of epidemic, with widespread and debilitating effects. Over 40 million Americans experience hearing loss, twice the prevalence of diabetes or cancer, and that number is growing. The number one challenge with hearing loss is reduced speech clarity: “I can hear you, but I can’t understand you.” Research shows that this inability to recognize words or understand speech can lead to isolation, depression and anxiety, with hearing loss the largest potentially modifiable risk factor for developing dementia.

But just like the power of mRNA is helping us get through COVID, we at Frequency see the power of a new kind of science to potentially address, and even reverse, the growing hearing loss epidemic. That science is Progenitor Cell Activation (PCA), a form of regenerative medicine designed to activate a person’s innate regenerative potential. Not coincidentally, PCA was first developed through research done by my friend Professor Robert Langer at MIT, who was also involved in the development of mRNA as a co-founder of Moderna.

We at Frequency have been steadfastly climbing the hearing loss mountain for several years now with our therapeutic candidate FX-322. This past year our scientists published initial peer-reviewed data showing, for the first time in human history, that FX-322 can restore hearing in humans. And based on learnings from all our FX-322 studies, we initiated enrollment in a Phase 2b study designed to bring us ever closer to delivering the first therapeutic for hearing loss. We haven’t gotten here without headwinds, but thanks to the resilience of an amazing team, and some powerful PCA science, I am confident we will reach our ultimate goal.

That’s what we did on Denali.

While I personally never made it to the top (the winds kept my half of the group from summiting on our scheduled day), the other half of our group drew more favorable weather and achieved our goal: putting a NOLS group on top of Denali. It was a shared victory we all could take pride in. A week later, when we were back down the mountain getting on a bus to take us home, a park ranger asked all those who summitted to raise their hand. Nobody raised their hand. Because everyone understood the mission. And everyone understood: mission accomplished.

So this New Year I toast to human resilience and the power of science. Let’s keep climbing.

David

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