Restoring Olfactory Function After Post-Viral Loss of Smell with Rick Geoffrion Cyrano Therapeutics
Release Date: 08/13/2025
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Empowered Patient Podcast
Paul Romness, Chairman, CEO, and President of OS Therapies, and Olivia Egge, a member of the Board of Directors of OS Therapies, discuss osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer that primarily affects teenagers. OS Therapies is developing an immunotherapy that utilizes a weakened form of the listeria bacteria to stimulate the immune system and prevent the spread of cancer cells to the lungs and brain. Olivia's experience as a patient has motivated her to advocate for better treatment options and join the board of OS Therapeutics. Paul explains, "So osteosarcoma is quite...
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Andrea James, Chief Financial Officer at iMDx, is focused on expanding access to innovative molecular diagnostic testing staring with a test for monitoring transplanted organ health. The test measures the donor-derived cell-free DNA which can indicate the need for drugs to target organ rejection before invasive procedures are required. The company is developing a kit-based version of the test that can be run by hospitals rather than relying on centralized labs, to increase access to this diagnostic and improve transplant outcomes. Andrea explains, "We changed our name on June 17th from...
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Healthcare Financial Recovery Driven by Focus on People First with James Hereford Fairview Health Services
Empowered Patient Podcast
James Hereford, President and CEO of Fairview Health Services, describes this Minnesota-based healthcare system's $600 million turnaround and the importance of focusing on people and processes, not just technology changes. Addressing staff shortages, quality of care, and patient experience led to finding a holistic approach that improved financial outcomes and changed the culture in a sustainable way. Investments have been made in community programs like food access and vaccination events, recognizing the impact of social determinants of health on patient outcomes. James explains, "When doing...
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Innovative Homeostasis Focused Drugs to Treat Root Causes of Disease with Steve Butts Arrivo BioVentures
Empowered Patient Podcast
Steve Butts, Co-Founder and CEO of Arrivo BioVentures, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that target the root causes of disease rather than just treating the symptoms. Their drugs treat major depressive disorder and acute pancreatitis through novel epigenetic mechanisms of action. Sex-based differences were observed in clinical trials where the drug SP-624 showed efficacy in females but not in males, which could lead to a paradigm shift in how depression is treated in men and women. Steve explains, "We've evolved over time at Arrivo and with our previous...
info_outlineRick Geoffrion, Founder and CEO of Cyrano Therapeutics, is developing a drug to restore olfactory function due to post-viral loss of smell and taste. As a result of COVID-19, there has been a significant increase in the number of people affected by long-term smell and taste loss, with no effective pharmaceutical options previously available. Smell loss can also be an early indicator of neurodegenerative conditions, suggesting future applications of the intranasal spray that aims to directly restore function to the olfactory receptor neurons.
Rick explains, "Taste and smell have a really strong connection, actually. First of all, they're two out of the five basic senses that we have as human beings. When you lose your sense of smell, people actually perceive that they've lost about 80% of their sense of taste. Now, technically, you're not losing your sense of taste. We actually just give our tongue too much credit. Our tongue is able to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. That's all it detects, and it detects them really in light monotone that are about 80% less intense if you've lost your sense of smell. In addition, if you no longer have your sense of smell, what you've really lost is the ability to detect flavor in food. So, to tell the difference between a peach, a pear, and a strawberry, maybe you'll tell that visually, but to tell it from a flavor perspective, you completely lose that ability.
"There really are no significant therapies to treat the condition right now. Essentially, if you've lost your sense of smell, a physician may recommend that you use smell training, which is essentially the regular smelling of intense essential oils, and they really haven't been shown to significantly treat or cure a chronic smell loss condition. It is thought that if your body is spontaneously recovering, say within those first few months, if you do undergo smell training, you may accelerate that recovery. But other than that, there's certainly no gold standard treatment or no significant treatments available right now, and no pharmaceuticals in the pipeline other than CYR-064, which is being developed by Cyrano."
#CyranoTherapeutics #Olfactory #LongCOVID #PostViralLoss #IntranasalSpray #SmellandTaste #LongTermSmellLoss
