Hearing loss affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide today—nearly one in five—and is projected to rise to 2.5 billion by 2050. It’s not just a nuisance: untreated hearing impairment is linked to social isolation, depression, and accelerated cognitive decline. Yet despite decades of research, there’s still no way to restore natural hearing or halt progression at its source—the inner ear.

Haystack Medical’s platform tackles this unmet need head-on. We’ve engineered microscale tools capable of delivering therapeutics directly into the cochlea with micrometer precision, giving us a competitive advantage over others trying to deliver therapeutics. By bypassing the anatomical barriers that limit systemic or round-window dosing, our approach maximizes drug exposure where it matters most, reduces systemic side effects, and opens the door to truly disease-modifying inner-ear treatments. In preclinical models, we’ve demonstrated safe, repeatable direct intracochlear access and sustained drug delivery profiles that greatly outperform current methods.

Today, we’re at the seed stage—our team has secured an IP option agreement with Columbia University, filed several key patents, and completed proof-of-concept studies in animal models.