The Hearing Health Foundation reports nearly 50M Americans and 360M worldwide have hearing loss due to noise, age, genetic, and other factors. The US Veterans Administration reports nearly a million vets are receiving disability compensation for hearing loss, and nearly 1.3 million receive compensation for tinnitus. Remarkable progress is currently being made in the development of drugs to treat hearing loss and other inner ear issues. Whats needed is a safe and easy to use device for the delivery of these medications to the inner ear. EntraTympanic proposes its patented EToscope device design and development for the safe intratympanic delivery of these medications to the middle ear, which will serve as a reservoir for subsequent transdermal diffusion via the round and oval window into the inner ear. The EToscope mechanically automates the manual tympanocentesis procedure to provide a safe and easy to use drug delivery vehicle to the middle ear. The therapeutic is then delivered over time to the inner ear via well-established transdermal drug delivery mechanisms. The device consists of a reusable platform with a disposable speculum. The procedure can be repeated multiple times by a physician or corpsman in the field with minimal risk to the tympanic membrane.
