September 14, 2022 – Sony and WS Audiology have entered into a partnership agreement and various ancillary agreements with the aim of jointly developing and supplying new products and services in the over-the-counter (“OTC”) self-fitting hearing aid market, beginning with the United States.
Through the partnership, Sony and WSA will combine their respective technological and medical expertise to create solutions that will shape this new field. Toward this end, the partnership will leverage Sony’s longstanding audio and product miniaturization technologies, its brand, and its broad consumer sales and service infrastructure that manages a wide array of products, in conjunction with WSA’s hearing aid technology and innovation strength, as well as its distribution power in the professional channel, which has been at the forefront of providing better solutions to help people with hearing loss for over 100 years.
Going forward, both companies will pursue enhanced products and services, striving to create OTC hearing aids that can be used more naturally and comfortably. By focusing on OTC hearing aids, both companies are trying to build a world where top-of-the-line hearing aids can be obtained more easily and by all people who are seeking solutions for better hearing with easy-to-use features that personalize the hearing aid.
Sony and WSA are currently developing the first product under the Sony brand for the U.S. market, where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 16th, 2022, local time, published the final ruling allowing hearing aids to be sold OTC without a prescription, effective October 2022.