All posts tagged: hearing

FDA approves first gene therapy for genetic hearing loss

FDA approves first gene therapy for genetic hearing loss

Published by Sam Flores

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Regeneron’s Otarmeni, the first gene therapy for genetic hearing loss. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The drugmaker said it will offer the drug for free to U.S. patients. Otarmeni is approved to treat a very rare form of hearing loss that affects about 50 babies born in the U.S. each year and is caused by a mutation in a gene called OTOF. The approval was granted under the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, an FDA pilot program intended to fast-track drug reviews. “This really is life-changing for families with children with hearing loss,” Dr. Eliot Shearer, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and a principal investigator on the Regeneron trial. The only other treatment option for children with genetic deafness is cochlear implants, Shearer said, which restore the ability to hear speech and music, but reduce the fidelity of the sound. With gene therapy, the improved hearing is “on 24/7 and doesn’t rely on batteries,” he added. …

The Big Question the Fed-Chair Hearing Leaves Open

The Big Question the Fed-Chair Hearing Leaves Open

Published by José Betancourt

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Speaking before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, Kevin Warsh—Wall Street veteran, centimillionaire, and family friend of the president’s—insisted that he would be “an independent actor” if confirmed as the Federal Reserve chair. The real question was whether enough of his audience believed him. In some ways, Warsh is a relatively uncontroversial choice for the role. He has plenty of relevant credentials: He served on the National Economic Council during the George W. Bush administration, and was a Fed governor during the Great Recession. He was even on the shortlist to be chair in 2017. His experience as a governor also informed some of his long-standing critiques of the institution; in an op-ed last year, he laid out a vision for reducing central-bank overreach. But overshadowing Warsh’s qualifications was Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign to exert control over the Fed. Some …

Hearing restored with gene therapy for rare kind of deafness : NPR

Hearing restored with gene therapy for rare kind of deafness : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Dr. Yilai Shu examines a young patient at the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University in China. Mass General Brigham hide caption toggle caption Mass General Brigham An experimental gene therapy appears safe and highly effective for restoring hearing to people born with a rare form of deafness, researchers reported Wednesday. The study, the largest and longest to date to evaluate a gene therapy for hearing loss, provides powerful new evidence that the approach may provide the first way to restore hearing to people who are deaf. “The results are really remarkable,” Zheng-Yi Chen, an associate scientist at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston who led the study, published in the journal Nature. “This is really for the first time in the whole field a brand-new treatment option for genetic hearing loss. So that’s very exciting.” The results, which confirm and extend a smaller study published two years ago, are consistent with those produced by several other research groups testing similar gene therapies for several forms of genetic deafness. In fact, a treatment developed …

Warsh pushes his plan for ‘regime change’ at Senate hearing: Analysis

Warsh pushes his plan for ‘regime change’ at Senate hearing: Analysis

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh faced searching questions at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. Democrats and even at times Republicans challenged his complicated finances, his relationship to President Donald Trump and what often seems like a wide-eyed endorsement of the promise of artificial intelligence. But one core issue for Warsh went all but unquestioned: his plan for what he calls “regime change” at the Federal Reserve.  Warsh has planned for years to sharply change the way the Fed operates, down to the very definition of the word “inflation.” That plan came through the hearing largely intact, leaving Warsh in a strong position if confirmed quickly to attempt an overhaul of the Fed. Any attempt at major changes will certainly spark dissent and disagreement within the Fed, as will his efforts to quickly lower interest rates. But Warsh said Tuesday he welcomes a “good family fight,” and objections from the Fed’s other policymakers may only be an advantage in Warsh’s eyes as he seeks to overturn their way of doing business.  Warsh has faced attacks on his credibility since …

Kevin Warsh Fed hearing live updates: Confirmation hearing Tuesday AM

Kevin Warsh Fed hearing live updates: Confirmation hearing Tuesday AM

Published by Sam Flores

What you need to know  Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh will face the Senate Banking committee at 10 a.m. on Tuesday for a confirmation hearing. Warsh would be the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed, he disclosed to the committee. The pick of President Donald Trump, Warsh would replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair. Kevin Warsh, the 56-year-old former Federal Reserve governor, is taking the hot seat at 10 a.m. for his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing. Warsh will field questions on a wide range of issues, ranging from his views on monetary policy to his sprawling and complex personal finances. He would become the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed. Some of the most important exchanges for his candidacy may center on how he views the boundaries between the Fed’s decision-making and politics. Questions about the Fed’s long-cherished independence have dominated the discourse surrounding the central bank during Trump’s second term. President Donald Trump, who originally nominated Jerome Powell for Fed chair during his first term in 2017, has waged a long-term campaign to try to browbeat the …

Key Events This Week: Warsh Nomination Hearing, Retail Sales, Fed Blackout, Earnings

Key Events This Week: Warsh Nomination Hearing, Retail Sales, Fed Blackout, Earnings

Published by Jenni Sidey

As the war in Iran enters its 8th week, Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid says that recent developments can be framed in two ways: either five steps forward towards peace and three back (seems more apt than three and two), or as evidence that the two sides remain far enough apart that a lasting deal will be extremely hard to achieve and markets have become far too optimistic. Reid leans more towards the former, but the comparison with recent history is uncomfortable. Remember the 10%+ S&P 500 rally in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, when hopes briefly grew of an early negotiated settlement, only to be disappointed. That episode is a clear warning sign. That said, the political calculus around Iran may be different. According to Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin, President Trump’s approval rating dipped notably after the war began but appears to have stabilised since the two-week ceasefire was announced on 7 April—possibly reflecting the subsequent fall in petrol prices. A renewed deterioration in negotiations would therefore be unlikely to help approval ratings …

Apple withholds data in India antitrust case, watchdog sets final hearing

Apple withholds data in India antitrust case, watchdog sets final hearing

Published by Sam Flores

NEW DELHI, April 20 : Apple has not submitted data sought by India’s antitrust body after an investigation found the U.S. firm abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market, prompting the watchdog to fast-track a decision on penalties to a final hearing next month, an order shows. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in an April 8 order that Apple has not submitted details of its financials and its views on the investigation since October 2024, and instead cited a separate case pending in the Delhi High Court where the company has challenged India’s entire antitrust penalty law. The CCI typically requires financial information from companies to calculate penalties when they are found to have contravened the law. Apple, which denies any wrongdoing in the case, has said it fears it could be fined up to $38 billion if the watchdog uses its global turnover to calculate penalties in the case. Apple has “been afforded adequate opportunities to file” its objections or suggestions to the investigation report and has also “not submitted …

RFK Jr. defends his health agenda and Trump’s proposed budget cuts in House hearing : NPR

RFK Jr. defends his health agenda and Trump’s proposed budget cuts in House hearing : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill on April 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. Heather Diehl/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Heather Diehl/Getty Images In his first appearance on Capitol Hill this year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his record in running the Department of Health and Human Services. On Thursday, Kennedy testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, playing up his agency’s accomplishments on a range of issues — from drug price negotiations to the new dietary guidelines — and did his best to sidestep criticism of his controversial actions on vaccines. “We’re ending the era of federal policies that fueled the chronic disease epidemic and replacing them with policies that put the health of Americans first,” Kennedy declared in his opening remarks to the committee. Democrats took the opportunity to grill Kennedy on many issues, including on the upsurge in vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, and attempts to weaken the childhood vaccine schedule …

David Ellison Won’t Appear at Senate Hearing Due to a Death in Family

David Ellison Won’t Appear at Senate Hearing Due to a Death in Family

Published by Daniella Wilson

A Senate hearing over Paramount‘s blockbuster $111 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery will move forward without the sale’s primary player David Ellison. The mogul’s Paramount policy team informed Sen. Cory Booker, the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, that Ellison won’t be able to attend the Washington, D.C. hearing due to an undisclosed death in the family. “Regretfully, Mr. Ellison is unable to be in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family,” Paramount policy exec Ted Lehman wrote in a reply to Booker. A studio rep declined to elaborate on the circumstances of that funeral. Lehman added, “As discussed in person with you earlier this year and in our written statement to the Antitrust Subcommittee at your request, our view on the proposed Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery deal is quite straight forward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits. And on the merits, the transaction is procompetitive.” In a letter sent on Monday to the Paramount mogul, Booker had …

Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh clears a hurdle to Senate hearing

Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh clears a hurdle to Senate hearing

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, fellow in economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, May 8, 2017. Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh has submitted required paperwork to the Senate, two people familiar with the matter said Monday, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive information ahead of its public release. Filing his financial disclosures puts Warsh one step closer to a Senate hearing. A prior plan to hold that hearing this week had to be delayed after a holdup with the paperwork. Warsh is married to Estée Lauder heir Jane Lauder, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $1.9 billion. The Senate will also need to receive Warsh’s answers to questions from the Senate Banking Committee, one of the people said. Once that questionnaire is received, the Senate can go ahead with formally giving notice of the hearing. It would take place next week at the earliest. Read more CNBC politics coverage Warsh’s path to a full Senate vote is …