The Kids Research Institute Australia has secured a State Government grant to prepare a nasal therapy designed to prevent childhood ear infections for a world-first clinical trial.
The WA Future Health Research and Innovation Fund injected $500,000 to advance the development of a nasal spray – Spritz-OM – to target ear infections that rack up a $400 million Australian public health bill each year.
With almost every child experiencing an ear infection before the age of two years and one in four experiencing repeat infections, development of a preventative solution is urgently needed to relieve the burden.
Ear infections are the main reason pre-school children are prescribed antibiotics or undergo surgery – with hospital wait times up to two years.
With earlier studies showing the spray’s effectiveness in treating ear infections in mice, funding will contribute to manufacturing Spritz-OM in single-use vials suitable for nasal delivery to humans.
Dr Lea-Ann Kirkham, research microbiologist at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia and inventor of Spritz-OM, said her team was excited to progress development to ease the impact ear infections have on children and their families.
“Thanks to this government funding boost, we can advance manufacturing of Spritz-OM to ensure it is made to the high standards required for human testing,” Dr Kirkham said.
Development of a low-cost therapy to prevent ear infections is an urgent priority to decrease antibiotic use, circumvent surgery wait times and reduce the impact that ear infections have on a child’s speech and learning through hearing loss
A therapy to prevent childhood ear infections would result in fewer GP visits, antibiotic prescriptions and grommet surgeries and would free up demand for speech pathology and audiology services.
Recruitment for clinical trials will start once manufacture of Spritz-OM is complete.
Further information about Spritz-OM is available here.