Advanced Bionics

An estimated two million Americans who are profoundly deaf cannot be helped with a hearing aid, which merely amplifies sound, because they suffer from sensorineural deafness (an absence of hair cells in the inner ear which convert sound waves to electrical signals). Cochlear implants can help this population by bypassing hair cells to send electrical signals directly to the auditory nerve. Advanced Bionics’ Clarion, the only US-made implantable cochlear device, is sold in the US and 28 countries. It consists of an implant that has 16 electrodes within the cochlea and an external speech processor box connected to a behind-the-ear headpiece containing an implanted receiver. Clarionsends sound waves directly to the system’s speech processor which converts them to electrical impulses that directly stimulate the auditory nerve. FDA-approved for adults in March 1996, Clarion has enabled over 60% of the post-lingually deaf adults who have tested the device to communicate without reading lips and to use the telephone.

In an $85 million worldwide market, Clarioncompetes with cochlear implants made by Australian-based Cochlear Ltd. and Med-EL, an Austrian company...