Press Release: CILcare extends its expertise to develop solutions for people with vestibular disorders with its partner Vertidiag

Montpellier, France, and Lexington, MA — June 15, 2020  —  CILcare, world leading CRO entirely specialized in the field of hearing disorders, announces a strategic partnership with the start-up Vertidiag, a company specialized in balance disorders. By combining their unique know-how, CILcare and Vertidiag can propose a complete service offering to identify and develop therapeutic solutions for people suffering from ear diseases including Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, Otitis and Vertigo.

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CILcare has developed its foundations on unique expertise in testing the efficacy and safety of drugs, gene & cell therapy, and implantable devices that target hearing loss, tinnitus and otitis. CILcare’s team is mainly composed of doctors, engineers, and experts in otology and neurosciences. The company operates worldwide from its facilities in the South of France and in Lexington, MA, USA, where CILcare partners with CBSET, a not-for-profit CRO linked to MIT, and specialized in translational sciences. CILcare has a portfolio of over 50 sponsors in the USA, Europe and Asia, and is recognized worldwide as the reference CRO partner for external innovation in hearing and otic disorders.

“The inner ear is responsible for hearing and balance. To make hearing a priority, CILcare’s service offering had to include, in addition to our existing deep expertise of the Cochlea, a deep expertise of the Vestibule, which is rare and requires years of experience and practice. Our partnership with Vertidiag is a great opportunity to combine forces towards a common objective that aims to bring solutions for patients who suffer from ear diseases in the very near future.” comments Celia Belline, CILcare’s CEO.

Vertidiag finds its origins from a world-renowned academic team, which has more than 50 years of experience in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of vestibular disorders. Vertidiag has developed a technical platform to induce controlled vestibular disorders and to measure their functional impacts. This platform uses behavioral pharmacology, along with a battery of cellular and molecular biology tools that support the understanding of the mechanisms of action of potential drug candidates.

Vestibular disorders account for 1,6% of all medical consultations (2,7% in the 60+ age group). It is estimated that over 14 million individuals suffer from vestibular disorders in the US and Europe alone. These disorders are of varying severity and incidence, ranging from severe one-off occasions (vestibular neuritis) to recurrent vertigo (Ménière’s disease). They are particularly disabling for patients, leading to postural instability in the elderly resulting in harmful falls and certain types of motion sickness.

Although no drug has been approved on the market for inner ear diseases yet, hundreds of drug candidates are being developed and some will succeed in reaching the market in the next few years or even months. This gives hope to the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who suffer from hearing and balance impairments. CILcare and Vertidiag’s mission is to support and accelerate these development programs.

“Both Vertidiag and CILcare have a sense of urgency in defining and delivering solutions to Biotech, Pharma, Medtech companies and Academics, with drug candidates that have the potential to become treatments for patients in the near future. We know that working together will benefit this cause. Our teams share the same values of scientific and operational excellence; they trust each other and are naturally working together towards a common goal,” comments Nicolas Chanut, Vertidiag’s CEO.

About CILcare

CILcare is the world-leading R&D services company specialized in hearing disorders. CILcare has internal R&D project direction capabilities and runs PK, PD, tolerance and ototoxicity studies for drugs, cell & gene therapies, and implantable devices that target hearing loss, tinnitus and otitis. CILcare was created in 2014 by a team of three women, business executives and scientists, who spent most of their careers leading preclinical, clinical and regulatory groups within Big Pharma. Established in Montpellier, Paris, and Boston, the company has become the one-stop-shop partner for pharmaceutical industries, biotechs and medtechs developing new therapies for people with hearing and otic disorders. For more information, visit: https://cilcare.com

About Vertidiag

Vertidiag is one of the leaders in the fight against vertigo. Vertidiag leverages its technological and scientific platform to offer a customized R&D services to meet the needs of its clients in the field of vertigo research. Building on more than 50 years of academic and industrial expertise, Vertidiag offers, in particular, safety tests, proof of concept studies and mechanisms of action studies. For more information, visit: https://vertidiag.com

About CBSET

CBSET, with headquarters in Lexington, Mass., is the preclinical research leader in critically important therapeutic fields such as interventional cardiology, renal disease and dialysis, chronic drug-resistant hypertension, women’s health, minimally invasive surgery, orthopedics, biological and synthetic tissue repair, drug delivery, bioresorbable devices, and combination medical device and drug-eluting products. Learn more about CBSET’s expert biomedical research services.