A new drug designed to lessen the debilitating and potentially life-threatening effects of exposure to peanuts by children and adults with severe allergies could soon be available.
The breakthrough new clinical trial, whose results were published Sunday, exposed 372 allergic children to small amounts of peanuts that increased over the course of six months.
The result was that 250 kids who were treated were able to digest the equivalent of 600 milligrams or more of peanut protein — roughly two peanuts — without having a reaction. Half of those treated were able to tolerate four peanuts.
The group, who were mostly between the ages of 4 and 17, swallowed capsules filled with peanut powder as part of the oral immunotherapy.
The idea was to treat “an allergy by gradually exposing people to the very same thing they’re allergic to,” lead author Dr. Brian Vickery told CNN.
The findings of the study, dubbed AR101, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a conference of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in Seattle.
But officials warned against breaking out the peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches just yet.
“It’s not a cure,” said Vickery, director of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Food Allergy Program. “It does not make the allergy go away.”
Instead, the experimental treatment was aimed at lessening the severe effects that accidental exposure can have.
In the US, an estimated 3 million people are afflicted by peanut or tree nut allergies, which can cause anaphylaxis, hives, vomiting, stomach cramps and shortness of breath.
Some people can suffer severe reactions from a trace amount of nuts and youngsters who develop the allergy don’t typically grow out of it — making the allergy particularly burdensome.
In December, California biopharmaceutical company Aimmune Therapeutics will apply to the Food and Drug Administration for approval for the new drug, which could hit the market by the end of 2019, a spokeswoman told the New York Times.
“I’m telling patients when I see them that my hope is that patients will have access by late next summer, something like that,” Vickery said.
He said the drug in the clinical trial proved effective only on children but would likely benefit adults in the same way.
Just over 11 percent of children who partook in the experiment dropped out due to severe side effects. Ten percent of kids who were treated had to receive an emergency shot of epinephrine, compared to 53 percent of those who took a placebo.