The Washington University spin-out will commercialise medicine preventing hearing loss.

Oricula Therapeutics has raised $122,000 from the company’s founders and an unnamed angel investor. This is the second time it has raised money, as it previously obtained funding under a grant from Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

Oricula, a Washington University spin-out based in Seattle and founded in 2013, will use the money to commercialise its first product, which prevents hearing loss as side effect of aminoglycosides. This class of antibiotic is used to treat some life-threatening bacterial infections such as endocarditis, an inflammation of the heart’s inner layer, but results in complete hearing loss in 10-20% of patients.

Oricula grew out of research that uncovered ways to help patients maintain their hearing after taking these antibiotics. The intellectual property has been licensed exclusively to the company, which plans on using the money to move its research into the real world as it progresses towards an Initial New Drug filing with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It would be the first FDA-approved medicine to protect the inner ear from these side effects.

The company, made up of employees who work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital, among others, hopes that its product will allow for a broader worldwide use of aminoglycosides.